Social Media & Beauty Standards

Have you ever been laying in bed, hearing the crickets chirp, seeing the moonlight creep onto your curtains while scrolling through your phone and seeing all these beautiful women with perfect bodies? You look at all the photos on Instagram of all these influencers and your self esteem starts to decrease. Then you ask yourself, “why don’t I look like this?” Or “how can I get myself to look like that?” As young women, we start to put ourselves down, then we feel we have to look a certain way to be considered beautiful. The women that have perfect bodies have the money to get stuff done to their bodies, it’s not how they were born nor natural at all. Influencers put tons of money into their bodies to make them look "perfect." However, Most teenage girls do not have the money to buy expensive products or get procedures done. On top of that, the procedures can be very risky and become an addiction where women are never satisfied with how they look or always find flaws they don't like. I’ve had many experiences where I start to compare myself to those women. Then I get into a state of mind where it makes me feel not beautiful and where it negatively impacts my self esteem. These beauty expectations even impact your children. I’ve had my cousins, between the ages of 10-13 say they are going on a diet or going to the gym because they don’t like the way they look. That isn’t right. They are too young to even be thinking about losing weight and they don’t get to have a childhood a 10 or 13 year old should have. I’ve asked friends and family about if they’ve ever felt the same way as me and they’ve told me they want to get a thinner waist, lip filler, even lipo. The generation we live in makes women feel they have to wear tons of makeup to look pretty, have a small waist to look pretty, have big lips to look pretty, and be a certain weight to be pretty. Women shouldn’t have the mindset of looking a certain way in order to be liked because it’s not like that. I want all women and young women to know we are all unique, we all come in different sizes and colors. What we have now is natural, and we should accept what we have and love ourselves for being us. So, the next time you are laying in bed, scrolling through photos of unrealistically perfect women and girls, just remember this: You don’t have to be perfect, just be yourself. With a perspective, I’m Jasmine Ortega