Here’s one from the archives, AKA the old Sprout. Want to explore the archives? Dive right in, you’ll find over 5000 articles from 2007 to 2016.
It was originally published on 29th May 2012 and is by hisgirl210410.
So the sun has come out and summer is coming meaning that out comes the flesh, as if human beings are solar panels! Body image is yet again at the forefront of many people’s minds.
I’m a girl and I, like many others teenage girls, are being bombarded with images of the perfect beach body, the perfect tan and the perfect bikini set. I am already sick of it!
I suppose in a way this article will be a bit of a rant but also will be a bit of advice in a way.
The first thing is the beach body; every magazine is bursting with diet options and workouts schedules to get you the body every women wants. But what is the perfect body? A size 10? A size 8? Toned and trimmed?
I have always longed for the body all the models in the magazines have yet I am beginning to see that I am never going to look like that and I should be happy the shape and size I am. It is hard to accept how we all look and it takes time and we should be embracing what we have; no one will ever fit the criteria of the perfect body not even the prettiest, skinniest girls as they will have bits they don’t like about themselves just like everyone else. So girls, and guys too, keep that in mind when you doubt the way you look, be yourself and be comfortable!
Then there is the tan… oh the tan! The lovely brown colour that, unless you are of foreign descent, is almost unachievable especially if you are Welsh through and through as I am. I am as pale as anything. I would have been fine if I lived in the Victorian era, as a pale complexion was highly sought after. This was because if you had pale skin then it showed you were upper class, as you wouldn’t tan while working the fields. Unluckily it has all changed and the tan is all the rage!
There are many ways of going about getting a tan from sun beds to fake tan. Sun beds have started to go out of fashion but many young girls are putting themselves at risk by not wearing sun tan lotion and burning their skin in the hope of tanning. If you are going about it this way then stop! Skin cancer can come from excessive exposure to the sun and its harmful rays so if you think the tan is worth getting cancer then please rethink this!
So if you go down the tan in a bottle method then great because you won’t get cancer from it but if it all goes wrong you will end up like an orange! We all know this look, think The Only Way Is Essex and that is it! Fake tan can go wrong appearance-wise when you get the rings around your knees, ankles and elbows! So again I suppose I’ll just say be happy as you are. If you have the skin which is the desired brown then enjoy it and if you are extremely pale enjoy that too, after all you will look better in certain colours than someone with darker skin, every cloud has a sliver lining and all that!
I have written this article as a reply to all the articles that express sadness about themselves or their appearance and also as an encouragement to be different, be unique and be yourself! You are beautiful however you look and please don’t let anyone tell you different, if they do then perhaps it is because they are not happy in their own bodies, ever thought that? I apologise if you aren’t religious but I must say God has made you to be you not someone else, if you were meant to be someone else you would be. You are loved just the way you are by the people who matter the most.
So strut your stuff in the clothes you feel comfortable in even if they aren’t the latest trend and show off who you are, perhaps if everyone did this there would be a revolution!
Photo Credit: pixabay cc
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