Introduction
We have a culture that tells little girls they are ornaments and their worth lies in how good they look. This is fed by the media.
Our media consistently shows women who are flawless because their photos have been altered in one way or another.
These images all share the same narrative that serve to make girls and women feel less than. Little girls can’t escape these images.
If they can’t obtain this elusive sense of beauty that models seem to capture, they end up feeling like they aren’t good enough.
Little girls deserve better. We all deserve better. It’s time to change the way we define beauty.
Table of Content: Read the Entire Article or Skip to Any Section
- The Reality of the Media’s Images
- None of Us Look Just Like Kim
- The Media Erodes Positive Self Esteem
- How to Take Back Control
- Bottom Line: You Are Beautiful!
- Video: Young Girls Ages 6-18 Talk Body Image
The Reality of the Media’s Images
The huge problem with all of these images a girl comes across in a day is that they’re not real. They’re not obtainable. The women who are being photographed don’t look like the end result.
Images are manipulated with photoshop, airbrushing, lighting and many other tricks in an attempt to make a model look “perfect.”
None of Us Look Just Like Kim
You might remember when Kim Kardashian’s contouring demonstration took everyone by storm.
A large amount of women started looking like Kim, and a ton of YouTube stars began showing you how to do the exact contouring.
In fact, you see a number of people still putting on multiple layers of makeup in an effort to look flawless.
We see this everywhere: TV, movies, magazines, commercials, music videos, the internet, and the ads that are all over phones. It’s not that we have an endless amount of Kims running around.
We have a media who ever pushes the limit of what is considered beautiful–to the point that no one (not even Kim) can pull off without some type of enhancement.
Even if the images are obtainable, the way we define beauty shouldn’t be determined by someone else.
Whose idea of “perfect” are we going by? The shocking reality that is present in the media has been continually tweaked over the years.
Little girls are being encouraged to take on this false perception of beauty.
The Media Erodes Positive Self Esteem
We have a number of young girls who don’t have positive self-esteem, have eating disorders, feel pressured into having sex at an increasingly young age.
They even go to drastic measures to achieve beauty, cut themselves when they don’t feel good enough, slip into depression and ultimately take their own lives.
We have an alarming trend of girls trying to look like a Barbie doll–complete with blank expressions in countless selfies. It’s time to take our beauty back.
How To Take Back Control
We can do this by teaching our girls:
1. What You See Isn’t Real
Understand that what you see in the media is fake. Pores are blurred out, waists are cut out to look smaller, legs are stretched to look longer, lips are inflated to make them look fuller and more.
Things are so drastically altered that sometimes you’re looking at nothing more than a computer image. None of it is real. There aren’t “some types of women” who can pull these looks off because none of them are real.
2. Rock Your Uniqueness
The truth is that we’re all beautiful. We are unique. We are daring. We are what “real” looks like. It is not our duty to be defined by someone else’s standards of beauty.
We are beautiful because we dare to be ourselves. In marketing, every business has its own brand. Isn’t it ironic that some of these businesses in the media would assume we don’t?
The things that make you unique is what makes your brand. Your brand is how people know you. Realize that you are one of a kind.
You have a beauty that is all your own. Your style, what you like and more is what goes into making you, you. That is beautiful.
3. Don’t Compare Yourself to Anyone
Even if an image hasn’t been altered, you can appreciate someone else’s beauty without comparing it to your own.
Beauty comes in many shapes, sizes and colors. You can appreciate someone else’s smile and still appreciate your own.
The light in someone’s eyes doesn’t diminish the light that is in your eyes. Just like the many colors of the rainbow all shine in their own way and add to the rainbow’s overall beauty.
4. Let’s Take Our Culture Back
We need to reject the notion that our beauty is determined by someone else. Our worth does not rest in how well we serve as a resource for others.
It’s time to focus on all that women have to offer. We are not a one-size-fits-all. We have different strengths, talents, personalities, passions, interests and more.
It’s time to recognize each woman according to these things and not how well we decorate someone’s arm. Moreover, our worth is not determined by anyone else. We matter simply because we exist.
Bottom Line: You Are Beautiful!
You are beautiful and so is every other girl and woman in your life. Don’t let the media shape our perception of beauty any more.
Let the girls and women in your life know today what you see in them.
Don’t be afraid to shine your light in this world too. We can take our culture back, but it’s up to us to do that.
Young Girls Ages 6-18 Talk About Body Image
What do many girls today think about body image? Allure sat down with these young girls between the ages of 6 to 18 to find out.
