A Picture Worth A Thousand Words

In the middle of my craziness this week I came across a picture that broke my heart. In my eyes it's a strong depiction of how our society has focused more on the image then the self-esteem of our young girls and women overall. Society has added an unreal image to the word “beautiful” which makes so many young girls and women feel that they are not. I am not saying that we should encourage our young girls or our society to eat unhealthy and to remove exercise from their daily activities. I am simply saying that we must rearrange our focus.

Photo Credit: Shanea Gaiger

We should encourage, educate and empower our young girls to love them-selves. To understand that they are beautiful regardless of their height, weight, race, ethnicity and whatever else may make them  “different”. The women represented in the media should be diversified not only in race, but in size. 
They should be of all sizes as that is the true depiction of our society.

I can’t speak for all plus size women, but it has taken all 28 years of my life to get to a point where I can look in the mirror and love myself. I’ve always been a big girl and I can’t even begin to count the many healthy and unhealthy diets I’ve tried. I have had at least three different gym memberships and struggled at each gym. I’ve been a size 22 and have come down to a 16 and back up and down and back up again. No different than people who are underweight, the struggle is more emotional than many can imagine. I can remember so many times driving to the gym and not getting out my car, because I was too overwhelmed and upset. Wondering what others were going to think and how ashamed I was of myself.

Somehow many in our society think that people who are overweight wake up one morning and say, “you know what, I want to be “fat” ”.  They are quickly labeled as “lazy”, which is not always the case.  It makes me upset that in our society many think that  people who are overweight have let them-selves go and are eating through life instead of   “getting off their ass and doing something about it”. Once again I don’t want to generalize, but I can speak for myself and I know for so many others when I say, that is not that simple and that the struggle is real.

I am a true believer that self-love is a journey and once we begin to love and value ourselves we can make the changes to live a healthier lifestyle. We can focus on our health; emotionally, physically, and spiritually. When we are able to love and care for the reflection in the mirror more than anything our lives begin to change. This is what we should be hearing from our society! Young girls should hear loud and clear that they are important, valued, and loved for whom they are, not what for the numbers on a scale or anything else. It should not be about being skinny, but being healthy and happy with who you are!

As always Queens stay beautiful, love yourself and everything else will fall in place! 

XoXo 
Paulaska 

Picture Source: https://www.facebook.com/officialderrickjaxn?fref=phot