Teen magazine Seventeen pledges 'real girls' only - WASHINGTON, United States of America - Seventeen magazine, responding to a gutsy high school student's petition, is pledging to feature only real, unaltered images of girls in its pages, social action platform Change.org said Tuesday.
I am one of those girls who grew up idolizing these stick-thin models with perfect hair, skin, teeth, and clothes. It wasn't until recently--yes, I mean that--when I began appreciating myself for my own beauty and not hold myself up to standards upheld by these industries for no other actual purpose than practicality. Come on, let's admit it: sample sizes are usually small, therefore you need to use skinny models. Also, you have to use models that aren't so shapely because you want the focus to be the clothes, not the girls.
But I am not a skinny girl. I've always been curvy. Now I understand there's nothing wrong with being curvy at all and I dearly wish I could impart this bit of wisdom to my teenage self. I always felt my curves were "wrong"--no one else my age had those curves at the time I began developing them. And after everyone else caught up? I was still generally curvier than the average girl.
If there's yet another thing I'd like my children to learn, it would be this. I spent a lot of time beating myself up, trying to fix something that wasn't even broken. I'm not blaming the industry; what they do, after all, is just another form of art and I appreciate it for that. I don't believe it's their fault for society in general thinking that getting those kinds of body shapes can happen overnight.
With the exception of regular exercise, my pregnancy has inadvertently pushed me to have a healthier diet. Inadvertently because I now eat much smaller portions of beef and pork and larger servings of fruits and vegetables than I normally would. To be honest, it's mainly because I can't stand eating beef or pork but as my pregnancy progresses, I find that I do still prefer a good helping of fruits and vegetables over dark meats. Chicken I'm an even bigger fan of now, though fish is still on the "I'll think about it" side of the fence.
I believe that's the secret though. Obviously getting an excellent balance of diet and exercise is optimal but if you do very light or minimal exercise, at least control your food intake. However way they get there, I pray we'll be able to raise our children to have reasonable concern for their looks and to never believe they are not attractive because they do not look like the models in magazines.
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