I’ve always struggled with my self-confidence. I constantly had the fear that I was being judged and ridiculed by my peers. Now that I’m 19, I’ve grown out of some of those fears thanks to my 12-year-old sister, Evie.
Although she can be shy at times, she’s one of the most confident people I know. As I went through puberty, I tried so hard to fit myself into the mold of the “ideal” woman. I was eager to shave, to wear bras larger than an A cup and to be slim and toned. I look at my sister, though, and I see how carefree she is. She’s able to embrace who she is, without letting the media convince her that she has to look and act a certain way to be considered worthy of acceptance and love. I’m not saying she has no insecurities, but she definitely doesn’t have the ones that I, along with many other girls and women, struggle with.
I realized that my sister and I grew up liking very different things. I loved dolls (especially Bratz dolls), I loved shopping and from a young age I aspired to look like the women on TV and in magazines who I believed were the definition of beautiful. Evie, on the other hand, would only watch Animal Planet and she had no interest in grooming dolls to make them look pretty. I feel that these differences are part of the reason why we have such opposing views about our own bodies.
It also shows how much of an effect the media has on how we view ourselves. I wanted to look like the dolls I played with, because they were slim and curvy at the same time. I constantly watched shows and looked at magazines where all of the girls had the same body type and perfect skin. Naturally, I would want to try to emulate them in order to feel accepted, but my sister watched a channel where makeup and the “perfect” body were of little significance. After all, stilettos and short skirts just aren’t practical when it comes to shooting African safari shows…
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