Self-esteem is the overall opinion you have about yourself, based on how much you like yourself regardless of the situation you’re in.
It builds up during adolescence as well as adulthood, and it affects every aspect of our lives, our mental and physical health, and our actions and relationships with others.
There are many adolescents who suffer because of low self-esteem, in fact it is stated that 78% of girls is unhappy with their body image by the age of 17 and most boys, especially those between the ages of 12 to 17, pass through an intense period of insecurity and are very sensitive about their image.
Today’s society is really toxic, and people can put you through hell just for not having the ‘perfect body’ or not fitting in nowadays’ beauty standards. It is very hard to understand that what we see every day on TV and on social media is most likely a fake. All those bone-skinny models, with perfect sizes and perfect bodies don’t always look like that in every day’s life: it’s just a game made of lights, filters and editing.
All these advertisements we see make a lot of people question about their looks and start thinking that their bodies aren’t okay the way they are, and of course society doesn’t help.
That’s why such things as the body positive movement exist.
The body positive movement is focused on the acceptance of all bodies, regardless of size, shape, skin tone, gender, while also trying to cancel present-day beauty standards and other things like toxic masculinity or slut-shaming. Body positivity is not for promoting unhealthy life styles or eating disorders, it just tries to see the beauty in everyone and each body type without bringing shame or hate to anyone; for example, the body positive movement doesn’t say that anorexia is okay, but that no one should hate on people who’ve been through that because of their body.
The movement argues that neither fat-shaming nor skinny-shaming is acceptable and that all body types can and should be celebrated. Although body positivity is perceived as the celebration of one’s physical appearance as it is, women are highly motivated to advocate the normalization of body hair, bodily fluids, menstruation, and to challenge preconceived ideas regarding a woman’s appearance.
If you think about it, what makes you beautiful is not your size or how much you weight, but the way you show yourself to others. So every body type should be celebrated, because beauty is in everyone.
