We Are More Than What We Look Lke

“Need to starve myself so I look like a Victoria’s Secret model. Need to diet so I look good in a bikini for Spring Break. Almost summer, need to start working out so I look good in shorts and a tank top.”

It never ends. Girls constantly publically hating their bodies. Thinking that maybe if they say everything that is physically wrong with them and work to fix it will magically cure everything in their lives.

Well I can tell you it doesn’t. My anorexia didn’t start because I was upset with how I looked but then again it never does. We as a society become obsessed with our appearance, thinking if we focus so much on the things we can control we won’t be upset by the things in our lives in which we have no power in.

Thinking if we look like the girls on magazine covers then guys will like us, or more importantly one day we will wake up and like ourselves.

Why can’t we all just admit that we don’t like the choices we make, the sins we commit and the things about our personality that we would give anything to change. We can’t take back the horrible thing we said to the one we love so instead we focus on changing our bodies and our food intake.

Not everyone develops an eating disorder this way but I did. Desperately needing an escape from the things in my life and finding control any way I can.

What is so frustrating is girls think that just because they’re not in a hospital with a feeding tube it’s okay to talk this way. To publically hate their bodies and transcribe all the ways they are changing it. Putting on Facebook and Instagram their daily diets, current weight on the scale and images of who they want to look like. It makes me so angry, as we have come so far as women in society just to belittle ourselves this way.

As someone recovering from a deadly eating disorder I am not afforded the luxury to partake in these things. I have to fight the images shoved in my face by society daily and remind myself I am more than what I look like.

I just wish others could join along in this. Take a stand against dieting and trying to fit their body into some unattainable mold. Start being kind to themselves and praise the things they do well. Take pride in more than what they look like but for the things they can offer this world.

If we could all start to do this just a little more, we could redefine beauty and maybe change the world and impact others in more ways than we could ever imagine.