Now girls, lets get serious

Dear Girls of the world,
I would like to take a break and take a look at myself from an omniscient, or third person, point of view. I would like to look at myself, not as I see myself, but as the world sees me. Now, this may sound much more serious than my normal, but well, I am sick and am therefore in a very serious mood. I, just like 62% percent of teenage girls, often have a very low self-esteem. Although I try to hide this fact, it is something I cannot deny, and I have spent most of the last few years dealing with how to get the body that I want, comparing myself to my size 0 to 4 friends, and being unhappy when I don't fit in a pair of jeans. I don't think I have ever sunk myself into so deep a hole as an eating disorder, but I know many girls who have, and I think it is a great danger that in our society we all face. What I think we all need to do is take a step back, and instead of glaring at ourselves in a mirror, look at our selves in a completely accepting attitude. I think that it is extremely important for us all to love ourselves the way that we are meant to be. In order for us to truly love others, we must first accept ourselves. So, if you are constantly punishing yourself for each bite of bread you have, or go on a diet after each step on the scale, you are never going to be able to truly reach out to others and have loving, meaningful relationships. And if we can never really connect with others, we will never be happy. So, lets all get a little self esteem booster!
So here ya ga:

• Today, the average American woman is 5’4″, has a waist size of 34-35 inches and weighs between 140-150 lbs, with a dress size of 12-14.
• Marilyn Monroe: According to measurements from Marilyn Monroe's dressmaker:
• Height: 5 feet, 5½ inches
• Weight: 118-140 pounds
• Bust: 35-37 inches
• Waist: 22-23 inches
• Bra size: 36D
• Hips: 35-36 inches
• Jennifer lawrence (one of my new favorite people) on preparing for her role in X-Men said, "I knew that if I was going to be naked in front of the world, I wanted to look like a woman and not a prepubescent 13-year-old boy…I’m so sick of people thinking that’s what we’re supposed to look like.”
• No matter what size you are, a 0 or a 16, it is more important that your are happy with the body you have, are confident, and dress to your best (I will talk more about that later)

Take a look at these girls, they are a range of different size, are all healthy (to the extent of my knowledge) and I believe are quite beautiful 

Marilyn Monroe, my personal body role model

Penelope Cruz! first, i want this swim suit. second, I love her body

Scarlet Johansson 

Twiggy! this is of course, the other end of the spectrum,
but i didn't want to leave out the fact that even littler girls may have self esteem problems

Jennifer Lawrence

Jennifer again, I just love her so much

Christina Hendericks from Mad Men

I live by this quote

GOOD.

REALITY CHECK

Aphrodite is considered an ageless beauty, and look! she has somethin on those bones!

Now, I want to challenge us all to write something out like this (following) and paste it up on our mirrors:

I, __________, love myself the way I am. I may not look like a sample size model (if you do, you can skip this part), but I am the way that I am because this is me, and I am beautiful. My (enter least favorite body part) is perfect, and does not need to change. My favorite aspect of my body is _____, and I can accentuate this by wearing_____. I promise not to hate myself for the gifts I was given, and promise to think of myself, and others, as beautiful.

And I want everyone to work on looking in the mirror with a gracious, not condescending, attitude everyday. Then move that point of view to others, so that you can accept everyone the way they are. I know that I my self need to work on both of these myself.

That was a lot longer and a lot more serious than I expected, but I hope you got something from it, because to me it is a big issue. 

Keep being beautiful girls! (any boys that read this, it didn't really apply to you)
xoxo
Mae