Like so many in our generation, I have dealt with my fair share of body positivity issues. Frankly, it sucks. But that doesn’t stop anyone from inadvertently aiding and embedding impossible ideals of beauty. 

Most often my insecurity lies within the scars on my legs. Little lines that I have never seen myself without. If I don’t know any different, why am I so self-conscious about what truly is my norm? 

To too many people, scars mean weakness. Whether it be due to a mental health issue, a surgery, or something else. When they’re noticed most likely the following question is, “aw, what happened to you?”. This doesn’t just reinforce that someone’s different or that said differences are noticeable; it reinforces shame that the scars are there in the first place. 

Shame that you are not everyone else’s norm. 

Now, I love social media as much as the next teenager you’d meet on the street, but between the memes and candid photos, there’s a community of people enforcing a beauty standard that just isn’t realistic for most people. I wish our society wasn’t at a place where so many people are bombarded with Instagram models who seem so “perfect” it hurts to look at them. If only those pesky ideals were not forever at bay, altering our perceptions as we walk through life.

I’m far from a psychologist, but to grow up and see an overwhelming number of people with “ideally” sculpted figures and without a single scar or pimple or anything, has to damage a person mentally. I know it isn’t just me. 

Now, I know that I cannot expect everything to magically change overnight. It’s foolish to think that our world is that open-minded. But can’t it? Why is it taking so long for us to realize that all bodies are beautiful? Why do we have to be “perfect” to be attractive? Why is it when I look up synonyms for imperfection, ugliness shows up on my computer screen as a result? Why does our society have such a backwards upside-down view of the way things really are?

I understand that some mainstream brands have begun to show a more diverse range of body types but it almost seems like they are under obligation. And it still begs the question, why did it take so long? Why were disabled people left out of yet another social movement? 

We deserve a chance to feel beautiful in our own skin. A chance to create and share our definition of beauty. After all that’s what this is all about, beauty.