The Pressure of Perfect

I remember one day, a couple weeks back, I was strolling through the aisles of my local Walmart. I was looking for the bird-food somewhere in the back and then came across the make-up aisle. The walls were filled to the brim with all types of cosmetics like lipstick, eyeliner, mascara, and numerous others. Upon the walls, there were many pictures of women smiling with makeup on their acne- free, perfectly even faces. Now, I’ll be the first to admit, I am thirteen, and from time to time I do wear makeup. Sometimes if I’m not too lazy I’ll put on some mascara before school or if I’m going somewhere special I’ll have my sister help me out. Besides those occurrences however, I usually do not. I personally don’t believe that wearing makeup at my age is a bad thing at all. Although, I do not think it is right for people to tell others whether or not they should be wearing it. It doesn’t just go for makeup though, it’s when society tells people they have to be a certain size, or look a certain way.

Yesterday while scrolling through my Facebook feed I saw a post talking about how girls being beautiful isn’t rare, but girls thinking they are is. Sometimes when I try to tell someone “You are beautiful,” they will deny the compliment and KEEP denying it until I give up trying to convince them they are. To me though, I there is a difference between being humble, and just getting to the point where people can’t give you a compliment without you arguing back at them. I think we can all admit there are things that we don’t like about ourselves, or that we can be insecure about but saying that you hate yourself takes things to a different level. Then, on the other side of it, there are people who accept the compliments, or feel good about themselves, and people view them as being too “full” of themselves. The last time I checked it wasn’t illegal to like something about yourself. I believe it is much better than disliking yourself. It’s hard to love others when you don’t truly love yourself. 

Also when looking at magazine covers of models with perfectly airbrushed faces, amazing figures (that don’t seem possible), nice eyebrows, and perfect makeup and teeth people are starting to say that it is affecting the way young people look at themselves. Looking at these covers they somehow feel that they need to look or weigh a certain way, and if they don’t then they don’t matter. A study said that one in four people were depressed about their bodies. Maybe if we weren’t so focused on what society thinks we should look like, we wouldn’t be so judgmental of each other and of ourselves. Many people say that society puts pressure on people to be perfect. There are things I have seen that try to encourage embracing feeling good about ourselves, and being comfortable in our own skin, but are they enough? Should we be taking more actions to make sure people are comfortable with themselves? Or should they be able to handle it on their own?

I think one of the major misunderstandings of insecurity and not being comfortable with yourself is that boys aren’t able to feel that way too. Boys are usually called handsome and things along those lines but it doesn’t mean they don’t get insecure too. Men are also advertised having perfectly toned bodies with abs and muscles. How do you think a boy would feel if he didn’t look like that? Just as discouraged as a girl who felt insecure too. Girls aren’t the only ones who go through it.

                Everyone truly is beautiful in their own way. People say it all the time, but it is true. We are all unique from each other and have different characteristics that make us who we are. Maybe if we focused more about the things we liked about ourselves, instead of the things we didn’t like about ourselves, things would be better. Life is too short to not embrace the body you have been given.