Embrace You

This morning as I stood in line waiting my turn to order my chocolate dream latte (which is a dream...oh my), I overheard the two women in front of me bash a complete stranger that was in front of them over what she was wearing and the state of her hair and makeup. It made me sad.

The judgments of ourselves and other women about age, weight, looks, clothes, etc has got to stop.


Mind you, I’m guilty of it myself sometimes. Open any magazine and you’ll receive a message loud and clear about exactly what constitutes a valuable woman: 110 lbs, perfect skin, teeth and hair, roughly between the ages of 21-26. It doesn't matter if you speak four languages or could talk for hours about binomial nomenclature. No one’s interested that you have more books than pairs of shoes or that you were the only girl who fought to play on your high school’s hockey team. No, as far as the world is concerned, you exist to look good in order to be good to look at. Or at least, that’s what they’d have you believe.

This is nothing new, of course. The media has been responsible for narrowing the view of the ideal woman and forcing it down our throats for decades. But ladies...we’re not doing anything to help ourselves. We try to overcome it or ignore it, but we inevitably succumb to it, in one way or another. We judge ourselves and because of it, we slowly begin to judge one another. We've all given another woman a side-eye over a skirt that’s too short, or makeup applied too thick, or that extra french fry eaten by a girl who is not a size 0. Even if we catch ourselves, it happens. And that’s really, really sad.

You are not your age, your weight, your hair, your skin or your clothes. You are not your favorite magazine’s opinion of you, your not what others think you should be. You aren't any of that. It’s that simple. Really.

So, what are you, then? That’s for you to decide. Learn to value the things in yourself and others that people would have you believe aren't worthwhile. Insecure about your weight? Appreciate that you have the curves to wear outfits that some thinner girls might envy you for. Thin? You look great in designer clothes! There’s no one right way to look, no one right body to have or way to style your hair. Frankly, it’d be pretty boring to live in such a homogenous world, so play up the things which make you unique and own them.

Insecure about getting older? Be proud of the fact that you have the life experience to have a better understanding of the world around you and wisdom to offer those who are younger than you. I'm proud of the years behind me but excited about the ones ahead, as well, which I can approach with the grace and contentedness that I find to be beautiful.







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