Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

I am going to ask you a peculiar question and I want you to read it slowly and answer it in your mind before reading the story:

Would you rather be skinny in a society that praised fatness, or be fat in a society that praised skinniness?

It is hard to imagine because we live in a society that praises skinniness, but wouldn't it be just as hard to be skinny if your society scorned it?

Dr. Steven Hawks shared this story in my "Body image, Self Esteem and Weight Loss Class" at Brigham Young University.  (It's been a while so I will paraphrase to the best of my memory):

A Brazilian girl was genetically very thin.  In her society it was a sign of health, fertility, and beauty to be more round.  She was teased and always being told to eat more.  She grew up with a terrible self image. She grew up and went to America for college.  There she was praised for her beauty and perfect figure.  Wow!  Same girl with a totally different story.  All she did was jump on an airplane. She remained in America and later married, began raising children, and gained some weight. She once again began to feel negative about her self image, but this time it was here in America because she was too fat.  The opportunity for a vacation arose and so she returned to her family and friends in Brazil.  Although she had began feeling too fat by America's standards,  in her homeland she was praised. People asked her how she had done it and told her how great she finally looked.

What a confused girl, huh?

I love this story.  I love how perfectly it demonstrates the fact that everything is relative and "Perfection" really doesn't exist.  Sometimes in your head there is an imaginary comparison going on between you and every other person.  Don't let your environment control you and tell you what you are supposed to look like! Don't be worried about what anyone around you looks like. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the only important beholder is yourself.  If you believe you are beautiful who else matters?

Well, God matters too and He created you so you know He thinks you're beautiful, and I am sure it pains him when we don't believe that about ourselves.


Know: You can believe you are beautiful without changing your appearance.

Repeat: I promise myself that I will challenge my mind to believe I am beautiful... no matter how long it takes!

Do: Rip up a ridiculously fake magazine picture of a model who probably isn't even happy and is so skinny it isn't even healthy!