The society we live in today comes with a tremendous amount of overrated expectations, that some individuals believe they need to participate in just to fit it or to try and make themselves happy. A great overrated expectation would be the idealistic body image that society “tells” us to strive for. I absolutely can’t stand this, for the life of me. For the longest time the ideal body was thin, causing individuals to overwhelm themselves, starve themselves, and become so focused on a model or whoever just to strive for the “thin is in” trend. Now we’re in 2017 and we have the famous slim thick “thicker than a snicker” ideal body, and if someone falls short for not being successful in changing themselves, some are prone to depression and very vulnerable. Although most of these expectations go towards girls due to us being more aware or worried about our bodies, there are expectations for guys too. Guys are “obligated” to be 6′ tall, be muscular, have facial hair etc…
Take it from my own experience…I was in middle school at the time and I used to see girls in my school, youtubers I watched, and people of Instagram and say,”Wow I want to look just like her”. So I took upon myself to try to lose weight and look up ways to shrink and reduce my height, since I was pretty tall and most of the girls were petite and 5′ tall. That phase lasted until I was a freshman in high school, when I realized that no matter how much effort I put in trying to be someone else it will never be enough and I’d never be able to please everyone. So I took upon myself again to learn to accept myself for me; to this day, slowly but surely, I’m appreciating myself.
It absolutely irks me that I was and people are consumed by social media. Please stop praising Instagram model, famous people, and youtubers that pay no attention to you and probably never will. Also, stop comparing yourself to others, be your own person and love the skin you’re in because no one’s love is going to compare to the love you have for yourself.