Body Image
By Kimberly, age 18, California
Most girls in America, maybe even all over the world, have had some type of body image issue during one part of their life or another. I can only talk about my personal experience that I still am dealing with to this day.
Ever since I was in middle school, as an African-American girl, I was always "supposed" to have the big booty and the big chest. But I never did throughout the three years I was in middle school. So being me, I figured that I was just hitting puberty and that it would come in high school, but then once again during those 4 years it didn't. Now I have just finished my first year as a college student, and yet I look exactly the same as I did almost seven years ago.
Not having both a big butt and boobs honestly makes me feel that I am not womanly enough, and it was really horrible for me in middle school where I hardly had any guys look at me because of it. It brought down my self-confidence because it made me think I was not sexy enough or pretty enough to have any guy like me. I knew I had a good personality and that I was friendly, but it didn't feel like it was enough for someone like me - I needed to have the looks too.
But there was nothing I could do about the fact that I didn't have any boobs or a butt. My body issues have always hindered my self-confidence because I never think I look pretty enough or hot enough, and half the time I hate the clothes I wear because I feel they don't look good on me, even though people say they do. When I look at myself in the mirror I don't see a pretty girl at all - I see a girl with fat cheeks, no boobs, no butt, and a girl who doesn't even look like a girl. I have never been a skinny girl, so I knew for me I would never be that way, but I never liked the fat I always had on my stomach, especially when I would wear certain shirts.
To this day, I still feel like that girl who is not happy with herself or how she looks. I don't think this is something that will go away anytime soon. It has even gotten to the point where I tried starving myself so that I would lose a few pounds, but luckily I am not the type of person who can be without food for long, so it didn't last that long at all.
I have been thinking about getting breast implants to make myself a bigger size, but for right now I am just looking into it. I just don't like the idea of having fake boobs, but for the moment I am just considering the idea.
As many body issues as I have, I am trying to work on them, and to love myself more, and to become a better person. I am hoping that people reading this will see that girls all over the world have body issues, and that no one's body is perfect. Everyone has something they do not like about themselves.
