“I wish I were thinner, I wish I were prettier, I wish, I wish, I wish!” is an internal dialogue that seems to play on loop in every teenager's mind lately.
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Get notified of top trending articles like this one every week! (we won't spam you)When Control Turns Into Harm:
It gets to a point where all you can think of is food, stare at yourself in the mirror till you can’t recognise your own face, and sit, thinking of all the things you could change about yourself. Safe to say, this is unhealthy, sad to say, it’s reality.
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Take the Quiz: Are You Obsessed or Fixated?
Answer these question to know if you are fixated or obsessed. Self-awareness is the first step to stopping.
Chasing a Standard That Doesn’t Exist
We spend every waking moment thinking about how we’re perceived and finding tiny faults that no one notices (and even if they do, who cares!). We get pulled into “trendy diet plans” that are just glamorised unhealthy dieting and beautify the perfectionist culture. What we choose to ignore is the cold, hard truth that stares right back at us from the mirror EVERY SINGLE DAY: that perfection doesn’t exist.
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At least, society’s version of perfection doesn't exist. (Thank god!) We’ve been molded to believe we need to be a certain way to be deemed good enough for the world, when in reality, the world is even more flawed than we ever could be. This isn’t about discipline or willpower; it’s about systems designed to make us feel insufficient.
The Cycle We Keep Falling Into
There’s always another option, a safer option, a healthier option. You don’t need to push yourself to extremes. I understand the urge better than I could ever explain, but I’ve seen what my friends and people online do, and I’ve realised how negatively it influences me.
The excitement of starting a new diet, the slow decline of following it, and eventually, the guilt of not finishing a diet that was never meant to be started in the first place.
Chronically Online
We’re chronically online. Every reel viewed is pushing an agenda. Do this diet, drink this every morning, etc, to lose weight quickly!
Paired with overconsumption, quick trends, and fast fashion, there’s no scope to keep up. Slim waists and cool tattoos, but suddenly we’re pushing body positivity, but only for certain body types.
Stretch marks, unibrows, love handles, and “bad” hair, but it all ties in with cracks in the dry soil on a sunny day, rivers that go on forever, the soft curves of hills, and untamed, wild grass. Nature never tries to be perfect.
Trends Rewrite Beauty
Everything is hated on until it turns into a trend. Everyone collectively hated freckles, and now people scramble to find the best ways to draw them on. Thick lips were “icky,” and now everyone overlines their lips like their lives depend on it. Big noses were critiqued, but now they're aestheticised; called “model-like” and “Roman”.
It Was Never About You
The body doesn’t change, the trend does. The flaw isn’t the feature, it’s who has it. Nothing changes, except how we look at it.
We can’t change the positioning of every single star in the sky to make the shape we want, but we can look at the stars and find the ones that already exist. If the standards keep changing, they were never meant to be met.
Self-love doesn’t come overnight; it starts with awareness. We’re turning into clones, like boxes on a shelf. Be different, be you, and honestly, when you like yourself, it doesn’t matter if anyone else does!
