Redefining Beautiful

my story

I am passionate about the pro-body, pro-self movement. I have struggled with accepting my body for as long as I can remember. In 10th grade, I did my speech on the media's influence on our body image. I discovered that the media- in all forms- has been promoting false body image propoganda and has been feeding us lies since we were children. We have been programmed to not accept ourselves because we don't equate to models and actresses. Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes, and I focused my speech on celebrating our uniqueness.

 

Then, I realized something else. What is more important than our outer-beauty acceptance? It's our inner beauty. Our empathy, our passion, our confidence, our courage. What makes us truly beautiful. Not our curvy figure, or thigh gap. It's what's on the inside. We are always changing on the outside, so why must we focus solely on loving our bodies? Instead of JUST focusing on our outer beauty, we should celebrate, recognize, and call attention to our INNER BEAUTY which will never change. 

 

My project is doing just that. I am combatting the media by writing and illustrating a pro-confidence, pro-inner beauty book for young children. Why wait to tell children how beautiful they are?

 

So this is my endevour. I don't want the children I teach, the children I am a counselor for at camp, my family, or my future kids to continue to grow up in a world where they are taught that their body and looks are more important than the beauthy within.