I post on a schedule and this post was suppose to go up a week ago but….
I like every other woman on the planet has an insecurity with their body; mine is my tummy. When going through the pictures for this post, I wasn’t happy with the way my tummy looked. I kept looking at it, trying with all my mental might to wish my tummy smaller but it didn’t work. My first thought was to never have these pictures see the light of day but after a few days I decided I would Photoshop the hell out of them. I loved these pictures; the location was great and my photographer did a kick ass job with shooting it, I was just insecure with how I looked but it was nothing that a quick nip and tuck of the Photoshop pen could not fix. But as I was driving to work I came to the realization that everyone has something they are insecure about and instead of hiding mine, I should show it and hopefully encourage others to do the same. There was a study done a while back; I apologize for not remembering the source, and it was about the number of likes a picture on Instagram receives if a woman’s body is “perfect” (Photoshop to death) vs a woman’s body in it’s natural state. The numbers were out of control, with the Photoshop picture receiving double the likes of what the natural picture received! I wish I could say that I’m not surprised, but I’m not. Each and everyone of us is vein and will judge on first looks, the level just varies from person to person. And with Instagram becoming a place where your feed is this curated gallery of perfections in pictures, it’s no wonder why for a second few days, I wanted to Photoshop myself smaller. I wanted to look better to get more likes because in this business, the more likes you get the more followers you gain and the more followers you gain the more brands notice you and the more brands notice you the more money you make; a cycle so sick I realized it as I was writing it.
I’m tired of feeling like I have to obtain this level of perfections that’s not real and quite frankly, I’m exhausted! Why do we constantly compare ourselves to others? Why do we pick ourselves apart? Why do we feel this need to race toward perfection? Why can’t we just be happy with how we are and what we look like? There will always be something I don’t like about myself. And if you are reading this, there will always be something you don’t like about yourself and that is OK. We should embrace that, not shy away from it.
Look guys, I’m not going to make this a long post about body image and how our society plays into that because if you are reading this, you already know that. I would however love to know your thoughts and start a open and honest conversation about so be sure to comment!
XOXO,
Shanna
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