our bodies

please be happy with WHO and WHAT you are on the OUTSIDE because that is the part of you that is NOT important at all. be comfortable with yourself and NEVER let anyone tell you differently OR make you feel uncomfortable with how you look.

i will never 'blend'. i do NOT look like anyone else (as a matter of fact, when i was with my little sister last time, little as in big brothers/big sisters, she asked why i made up my eyes in a particular fashion. in addition to the colors i use and 'doe eyes' i draw, i also draw little straight lines under my eyes, rather like a clown but of course NOT that bold. i told her i did it on purpose. i told her i did it so i would be different than everyone else. i told her it was ok to be different. i told her it was ok to be who you were. i told her she should be PROUD of who she was. not to worry though, that kid has NO problem in the self-confidence aisle). i'm not skinny and i came to terms a LONG time ago i was NEVER going to be skinny. i wear funky clothes and i LOVE my clothes. some people look at me like i'm the devil, yet many smile when they see me. not smiling because they think i'm nuts but smiling like there goes a woman who is her OWN damn self and not afraid to show it. the OLDER i get, the MORE comfortable i get with myself. sure, we all have some doubts about ourselves. that's normal. we all have a thing or two we're self-conscious about. that's normal too. i won't let it get to me though. if it's something that is REALLY bothering me i'll attempt to work on it and change it. i do it for ME though. i don't do it for anyone else.

The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body

By Courtney E. Martin, AlterNet. Posted April 18, 2007.

This article is excerpted from "Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters" by Courtney E. Martin. Copyright 2007 by Courtney E. Martin. Reprinted by permission of Free Press, a division of Simon and Schuster, Inc.There is a girl, right now, staring in a mirror in Des Moines, scrutinizing her widening hips. There is a girl, right now, spinning like a hamster on speed in a gym on the fifth floor of a building in Boston, promising herself dinner if she goes two more miles. There is a girl, right now, trying to wedge herself into a dress two sizes too small in a Savannah shopping mall, chastising herself for being so lazy and fat. There is a girl, right now, in a London bathroom, trying not to get any vomit on her aunt's toilet seat. There is a girl, right now, in Berlin, cutting a cube of cheese and an apple into barely visible pieces to eat for her dinner.Our bodies are places where our drive for perfection gets played out. Food is all around us, as are meals and the pressure that goes with them. Well-intentioned after-school specials teach us, from a very young age, how to purge our snacks. We are inundated with information about "good" and "bad" foods, the most effective workout regiments, the latest technological advancements in plastic surgery. We demand flawlessness in our appearance -- the outer manifestation of our inner dictators.....................