“In a society that profits from your self-doubt, liking yourself is a rebellious act.”

            I hear people talking negatively about themselves daily and it is time to stop. Movies. Books. TV shows. Magazines. These all tell us the perfect person we are all supposed to strive for; a person that does not actually exist. Nobody is perfect, and we need to celebrate our imperfections and “flaws” because that is what makes us who we are.

Stop comparing yourself to others. Comparison is the thief of joy. Don’t strive to look like the man or woman in the magazine – they themselves do not look like that. Don’t conform to norms if you don’t like them. We all learned from a young age that we were constantly compared to others. You might have been better behaved than the girl sitting beside you, but lower academically than the boy sitting across the room. We must be the ones who stop the cycle. We must stop the comparison. Another person’s beauty or success is not the absence of your own. We are all different, in our own beautiful and wonderful ways.

Do what you want to do. If you hate working out, then don’t do it! But, on the other hand, if you love to go to the gym and run or lift weights, then go ahead. Just don’t do it because society tells you to or because you are worried about getting a boyfriend/girlfriend if you don’t lose a few pounds or gain more muscle. Eat a whole cake if you want. Wear a bikini to the beach and display those rolls proudly. Put down the brand-name sweatshirt and put on the ratty, punk band t-shirt that you love so dearly. Turn up the radio and dance like a maniac in the middle of the hallway to see if others will join you. Say what you feel. Act like the lovable idiot you are. Just be yourself.

Stop listening to what the media thinks is attractive. Stop paying attention to what the scale says. Stop reading so much into what somebody subtweets at you. Nobody’s opinion of you and your body matters except your own. I think we all need to apologize to ourselves. You would not have said half of the awful things you have thought about yourself to your best friend or your little sister or your mom, right? Get up every morning and consciously think of two things you love about yourself, whether they be mental, physical, or emotional. This may be hard somedays, but I am sure you can come up with two things…. I’m really not asking for much here.

After researching this topic and trying to decide what I was going to say, I started to think about my own life and whether I truly love and accept myself or not. I scrolled through my Pinterest boards and saw that I had a full board dedicated solely to workout clothing and one to different workouts and exercises. I then deleted them both. I work out occasionally when I want to or for a little stress relief, but I know for a fact that the reason I had those boards was because I felt that I NEEDED to work out, not because I wanted to. Next, I looked through my motivation board to see if I had pinned anything about body positivity or to make me love myself more. Nope. My motivation board was full of pins advocating losing weight and even calling me names if I didn’t work out or gave up. So I deleted that board too. And I feel great about it.

-Signed your forever friend and admirer – someone who loves you for who you are.


Delaney Ray '19 is a Psychology and Sociology double major with a minor in Criminal Justice. She works as a Student Orientation Leader and a Library Desk Assistant in addition to blogging for MU. She never thought she would be a blogger, and her dream job is to work for the FBI in the behavioral unit.