Why body shaming is a real big deal among teens? How to Brush off body shaming?

TEENAGER PROBLEMS
SERIES - 5

Just a simple question before starting today’s blog “have you ever felt like you’re not good enough?” well I don’t know how many of you might have felt that way but there was time I used to compare myself and thought that I’m not like other kids, and just because I was a fat kid nobody  is going to like me or be happy to be my friend, so somewhere from the starting itself I put myself down in every possible way! I’m fat, I’m not like other girls out there, I don’t look good, this and that blah blah blah, but whatever, it is usual in teens to get these sort of thoughts.

Did you took a min and ever thought about how often we are told to change our appearance? Our society has distinctive image of how a girl or a boy should look like, or usually what we call as “ideal body” or “ideal beauty”, and there is no doubt magazines and television plays an important role of messing up with people’s brain where they show zero sized models and make us believe that this is the ideal beauty and that is what beauty stands for.

Magazines constantly offer tips about how to lose weight “in days,” appear slimmer “instantly,” and hide our “imperfections”… without actually knowing anything about us, much less our appearance. Messages from the media and from each other often imply that we should want to change, that we should care about looking slimmer, smaller, and tanner.  And if we don’t, we worry that we are at risk of being the target of someone else’s body-shaming comments.

Body shaming expresses in many ways, sometimes without knowing and sometimes purposely.

1.       Finding the fault in your own appearance, in short, comparing yourself to someone else.

2.       Finding the fault or criticizing another’s appearance like a foolish person, surely if someone can’t be nice to others at least he/she can shut their mouth.

Body shaming can be in any form, but no matter how it manifests it leads to comparing and self hatred. No doubt, the society we live in judge us in every way, if they find someone over weight they be like “you look ugly, you really should shed off some weight out of your body”

Or if he/she is skinny then “you’re so thin, you should eat something”.

I don’t understand that why people are so damn harsh and they don’t even think once before passing any kinds of comments on someone’s body, that’s really disappointing and a matter of concern. In some ways, it feels easier to shoot for something that will hurt, like targeting physical appearance, rather than expressing what is really going on emotionally.  Saying, “I’m really hurt by how my friend treated me,” or “I’m terrified of losing this friendship” opens us up and makes us more vulnerable, and therefore feels easier to bury underneath the body-shaming comments that rush to mind.

We all know that our bodies is our real home, and if you love it, it is going to love you back even more and more. Embrace it, love it, make yourself feel comfortable with your body, I know that sounds weird but to be honest it is not, because there are people out there who don’t love their bodies and it’s so hard for them to accept themselves the way they are. They are not ready yet to believe that they are perfect the way they are and it is really not necessary to look beautiful but to feel beautiful. Healthy body is not about being zero size, or having abs and shit. There is no definite definition for a healthy body, it’s not that all zero sized people are healthy and all those people we do not put into that category are unhealthy.

It was really hard for me to accept my body, I hated myself in every possible way, and yeah I was bullied, I was trolled, people used to make fun of me, they used to come up with these mean names for me, and being a teen at that time and coping with all these things was not easy for me. I learned many things throughout this journey and realised few things.

1.       You can’t change someone’s mind and the way they conceive you.

2.       It’s no use thinking about what other people think about you.

3.       Mean people are EVERYWHERE and the only thing they know is to pass mean comments, so don’t worry about them.

4.       No matter what size you are, you are perfect the way you are!

5.       Do not change yourself for someone else, or just because they say “you would look pretty if you would lose that extra fat on your body/ put on some weight.

6.       You are loved and you are fine the way you are.

It might seem difficult in the beginning but trust me you will see so many changes taking place in your life, if you start understanding all the things I mentioned above. It’s important for every single teen to realize some of the things which their parents might never talk to them about, but you know it is fine, we are strong and we know how to cope up with the problems in life without being a crybaby. I know you are strong and you got this, in fact we all got this!

                                  STAY STRONG AND LOVE YOUR GODDAMN SELF!