You Don't Have To Be Perfect to Be Beautiful!

I could not count the number of girl's and women  I have known in my life (especially in my teens) who are absolutely beautiful and yet still cut themselves down and use words like "fat" when describing themselves. I can't deny that words like this have come from my mouth as well through the years. When I really stop and think about it, many of these friend's of mine have been size 4's or 6's at most and were still putting themselves down and saying things about themselves that had absolutely no truth to them. Looking back now, I remember a few years back when I was a size 6 and was always worrying about my weight and dieting. In hindsight, I can see how ridiculous I was being at the time. After all, when I got married I was so slim that you could see my ribs! I was fairly tall at 5' 8 and had a larger bone structure than most of the girls I knew at the time and yet I still ignored those facts and couldn't get the fact that I weighed more than most my friends out of my mind. Looking back, I can now see clearly that my misconceptions about myself were largely attributed to what I saw in the media. We ladies walk in a store today and see the covers of magazines plastered with images of super skinny, flawless looking models and celebrities and whether we realize it or not it has an effect on how we see ourselves. It's all over the internet, television, everywhere women look. When I got married, my insecurities somewhat abated and I was able to have a mostly positive view of myself and how I looked. Then, I got pregnant with my darling little girl and as I packed on the pounds, these feeling slowly began coming back. Once I had given birth to her and didn't instantly return to my pre-pregnancy size and weight I was devastated. Once again the feelings of low self esteem and self worth came rushing back into my brain. Only, this time in a little different way. Now, I saw the models and celebrities claiming to have perfect bodies again almost overnight after their pregnancies. What I failed to see was what I had been missing since my insecurities first started as pre-teen and teen girl. If these magazines, photos and Internet ads were honest we would see the words "photoshopped", "airbrushed" and "plastic surgery" written all over them. As I am slowly realizing, no woman is perfect out there. Plastic surgery and photoshopping (both so popular in our culture today) work wonders. Everyone woman has flaws, some just spend thousands or even millions of dollars having these flaws corrected. So, to all my friends out there and any woman reading this, know that you do NOT have to be perfect to be beautiful. Whatever size you are, whether your tall or short, you are all beautiful..every one of you! Beauty is so much more than the outside appearance, so much more than false advertising and photoshopping. Beauty is within you. Realize this beauty, embrace it and stop believing the lies that are presented all around us on the covers of magazines and Internet and Tv ads.
In closing, here is a picture of Marilyn Monroe at a size 14 and a half-starved supermodel today. In her time people could appreciate REAL women, not women with fake bodies or computer imaged advertisements. I find it disturbing the way our social culture and media has affected the way women look at themselves and how the majority of men judge women today. They seem to expect perfection, when in truth, it doesn't exist. Don't be one of these people; your'e only lying to yourself.