Girls don't just hate their bodies, we teach them to...

The other day I was at the mall getting a new outfit since my clothing has become very limited and I was getting ready to come home for the weekend. Standing in the dressing room I just couldn't help but be discouraged. Why though? I'm down a pant size, I've come so far. I got the outfit, but as I left the store I sent a text to my mom and said "Nothing is worse than feeling constantly at war with your body."
The saying they teach you in elementary school, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" is the biggest lie we can tell children. Bullying for me began in elementary school, getting to the point where instead of going out to recess I would sneak off into the library and let books take me into another world. It continued all the way through high school. I constantly had derogatory statements thrown at me, such as "Watch it fat ass", "You're just a but-her body", "You're just making yourself fatter", "No one will ever love you if you don't change the way you look", "You would be so much skinnier and prettier if you did things like me" or even being made fun of during our fitness tests in PE. What is even worse about it was that it wasn't just from my peers, it was also from people close to me. But I'm not on here to just talk about my experience with bullying and mental abuse, I'm here to make a point. I can guarantee that majority of those people don't remember making those remarks to me, but I do. They are something that run through my mind constantly. I don't know if people really realize how deep their remarks cut. But it's not just the local school bully that messes with a girls mind. Society has put such a pressure on women to be thin and beautiful, the media becoming bone-hungry and thin-obsessed. Today the average woman is around a size 12, fifty years ago the average woman was around a size 8. What makes me sick is that the media publishes models that average at a size 0. How is that a realistic role model to give young girls or how is that fair of them to say that someone like me in a size 6 is not good enough? Who are they to judge and dictate how women in society should look? Girls do not just hate their bodies, we teach them to. Not only is it giving men the wrong ideal of women, but it also does the same in giving women the wrong ideal of men.
This brings me to the importance in not only fighting obesity in America, especially childhood obesity which is on the rise, but we need to fight the media. You can't just fight one type of unhealthy and preach another. The media needs to focus on healthy people and accepting the way they are born. None of this your nose is too big, your eyelashes aren't long enough, your boobs just don't cut it, that the acne that you are doing everything possible for make you less of a person.
But unfortunately, the media has already brainwashed majority of us whether we are aware of it or not. I'm not saying it's a lost cause though. We've come to a point where we need to realize that our value does not decrease because of someones inability to see our worth. Beauty is about being comfortable in your own skin, it's about knowing and accepting who you are. But don't let the media and the negativity committee dictate who you are.
Now writing all this is so much easier than doing it. This will be a battle that I will have to deal with for the rest of my life, as well as many others reading this. Because of what has been said to me I will always be my worst critic, but I can also be my biggest fan if I allow it. Insecurity kills all that is beautiful. If someone treats you like shit, just remember that there is something wrong with them, not you. Normal people don't go around destroying other human beings. Keep a positive mind and don't let the bullies and media get into your mind. And most importantly, be kind to everyone...including yourself.