I AM BEAUTIFUL
When waiting in line at the grocery store, and you want some light reading, do you grab the magazine with the overweight, acne covered girl on the cover or the flawless model who has tips on how to be just like her? As humans, “there is this feeling of wanting to be accepted”  and when these magazines plaster flawless women on the covers, we can’t help but seize those magazines praying for a couple tips on how to be the cover girl in our own daily lives. What isn’t written in bold letters on the cover, is the fact that these models most likely have personal trainers, have dietitians, and have had their pictures heavily retouched. Magazines create a quintessence of beauty that no girl can ever achieve no matter how much makeup they put on or how few calories they consume. It’s simply impossible to become a walking computer generated image.

The Deception
Magazines help create this warped way of thinking when “nearly every other page is filled with a photo shopped image of a model”.  Seeing these images so frequently, girls have become obsessed with their “look” and they now scrounge for reassurance that they’re still beautiful through social media. If a picture on Instagram doesn’t get enough likes, girls suddenly feel insecure and ashamed. “Likes, after all, feel like a public, tangible, reassuring statement ”  to girls showing them they are, in a sense, their own cover girl. Girls are constantly comparing themselves to women who don’t obtain their look naturally. “96% of women avoid using the word beautiful to describe themselves”  because in their heads they, in no way, come close to the beauty of women surrounding them in the media. What women need to realize is, the “perfect” look these models have is just a façade that editors Photoshop to help sell more magazines.

The Reality
Let’s put things into perspective, the average woman is “5’4 and 166 pounds” and the average model is “5’10 107 pounds” . The moral of the story is that it’s not realistic to try to look like these models in the magazines because they are of a special breed of women that are born long and skinny. A long and skinny that no human can obtain no matter how hard he or she tries. “Most runway models meet the body mass index criteria for anorexia” . See, their appearance isn’t even attained naturally. They starve themselves in order to create this image of perfection. This “thinspiration” girls get when they see their idea of the perfect body isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s great that many young women strive to be healthy and fit, what’s bad is when girls fail to achieve the “perfect look” and resort to extreme measures to get it and keep it. Girls of all ages need to realize what they see on the covers of magazines, isn’t reality. Reality is pimples. Reality is frizzy hair. Reality is thighs that touch. Reality is NOT perfection.

The Solution
Now what? What do you do with all this information? How do you feel beautiful when everything around you is telling you you’re not? You don’t believe the lies. In a survey, about 15 high school girls were asked what makes them feel the most beautiful. Some girls answered they felt the most beautiful while being active and living a healthy lifestyle. Others responded saying sleep, money, and cute outfits show them their beauty. Lastly, the rest said they feel the most beautiful when they receive unexpected compliments from those around them. This problem doesn’t have an immediate solution. It’s not like cancer, there is no cure; but, as a community of young women, we can encourage and speak truth into each other’s lives. Compliment someone on how good their hair looks, how good they smell, how cute their outfit is, how nice they are to other people, how BEAUTIFUL they are. Make people feel beautiful through your words.