“Love yourself no matter what size!” This is a sentence from a tweet Jeannie Irwin made to spread the message of self-love and raise awareness. With social media`s popularity rising steadily, and information being delivered faster than ever, society and its beauty ideals have been displayed and exposed to a much larger audience. It is messages like this that make the problem of beauty standards come to the surface, and it is time to act against toxic, unhealthy and most certainly not real beauty ideals.

Jeannie Irwin makes an important point in saying: “The measure of your self-worth isn`t in LikeforLikes or compliments but in your selflove without the extra attention.” No matter how much approval one gets, or how many compliments, if they themselves are not happy with their body and appearance, they will not believe they are beautiful. Like there are different cultures, there are different aspects of what is considered beautiful. In fact, every person has their own idea of beauty. What may be gorgeous to one, is obnoxious to the other. A person cannot please all people, that is simply not going to work. This tweet encourages the idea of self-acceptance and selflove. There is one person that one will spend their entire life with for sure, and that is one`s own body. And if the focus is on feeling confident in one`s own skin and feeling beautiful even if someone disapproves of it, the message of selflove is showing its effects.

Thus, body size diversity has slowly been getting more recognition. There is now not just one body type that people must have, in order to be “beautiful”, since model agencies start presenting models in all different shapes and sizes. Yet, it is not enough- the damage that has been done is still showing. The toxic beauty standards have been engraved so deep in people’s minds, which is destroying their self-worth, because what was taught to them was that they would never be accepted, if they could not fit in. The irony is that the beauty standard was made to be unreachable, so the beauty industry could profit even more and even longer from the illusions they created. Also, model agencies should not be the only ones to be able to show what “real beauty” is. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and nobody should have the right to judge others. It is simply none of anyone`s business what people decide to do with their body. Unfortunately, when people do decide to not care about beauty ideals and just be their own person, it is mostly not accepted, even though that has also been getting better. Society is not yet doing well in terms of social acceptance regarding body size diversity, but it also has to do with people`s own insecurities that they project on others.

Moreover, a lot of influence on body image and beauty comes from the beauty industries, from Instagram posts showing the seemingly perfect models to magazines giving advice on how to lose fat in the quickest way possible. There is so much pressure to be liked and approved of, and fitting into the mold of what is considered beautiful. But every individual is different, what may work for one person, might not work for the other. And since that fact is completely disregarded, young girls and boys are feeling pressured to take drastic measures to achieve that perfect form, which is damaging for both their mental and physical health. The beauty industry profits from creating insecurities by promising that they know a way to “fix” the problem. But there is also some good: Social media is also being used to spread awareness, the term “body positivity” being especially popular.

In conclusion, the walls of society`s beauty standards are being broken down slowly, but surely. It is so very important to help people realize that they are enough, and that there is not just one perfect body, or one perfect face. A person`s body only belongs to themselves, and no one has the right to judge it or force change.

Jessica Steininger 6M // Jänner 2021 // Oberstufe // Non-Fiction // Essay