Every time I open Facebook, I will always see a picture or meme that enforces the fact that larger woman are more beautiful than thinner woman. I see things such as “Guys don’t like skeletons, they like curves” and “Real men like curves, only dogs go for bones.” As a thin girl myself, quotes like that really make me feel insecure, because it makes me feel that I am unwanted.  I’m not saying that bigger girls aren’t beautiful, because they are masterpieces. But because of social media, I feel that I’m not what people want me to be. It makes me feel self-conscious about my body type. Because of these pictures, I find myself striving to gain a little weight and to find techniques to become wider, too.

I feel people look at my thin figure before they look inside of who I really am. I want to be liked because of my funny faces, my love for God, my passion for choir and newspaper, my one-of-a kind laugh.

Though I may sometimes joke around that I’m fat, in all reality I only say it because I want believe that it’s true. A few years ago I had gone to the doctor and he had told me that I was considered underweight when I was supposed to be at least 10-15 pounds heavier. Before I would count it as a small victory that I was small. But now that being skinny is, in a way, being looked down upon, I feel that I’m not beautiful. I always hated it when girls in my class would come up to me and say “Oh my gosh you’re so skinny! I wish I was like that.” What am I supposed to say to that? “Oh thanks I love being this skinny” or “No I wish I was fatter because…” Whatever I say, I always feel mad that people don’t see that I really don’t want to be like this.

The other day while scrolling through Facebook, I saw a picture with the words “real men like curves” crossed out and underneath it was, “Real men like whatever the heck they want. Real women do not compare men to dogs and women to bones.” Sometimes we try so hard to make certain groups of people feel good about themselves that we don’t realize that we might be hurting the other group.

We need to stop striving to be perfect physically because society’s definition of “beauty” is always changing. Instead, we should aim to be people who have a beautiful personality.  We need to focus on peoples actions and not their appearance.

Read about how social pressure impacted another staffer’s self perspective here: https://www.raiderecho.com/opinion/2013/11/26/student-reveals-how-social-pressure-impacted-self-perspective/