To say that girls today are exposed to an unhealthy amount of pressure to look a certain way would be a bit of an understatement.
And as a mother of a little girl, I often feel so blessed to have done the first bit of my growing up in a world where your worth wasn’t measured in the amount of likes your selfie got, and there were blessed few Kylie Jenners with their cosmetically inflated lips knocking about. At least you came across them far less frequent, and didn’t have that botoxed “reality” rammed down your throat quite as often.
American activist, speaker, and author Glennon Doyle Melton recently found herself having to answer some tough questions about beauty when her 10-year-old asked her how come everyone she saw pictures of were so skinny and perfect, and looked so different from herself.
In an extremely emotional essay posted on her blog, the mother-of-three details how she handled the complex question, and how she used her own experience to help her baby girl ultimately empower herself in an unbelievable way.
“We talked about all the messages girls get about staying small and quiet and competitive and how that’s all horseshit meant to keep girls weak and separate from each other, so we can’t join forces and lead. We talked about how hard and wonderful it is to have a body, and we talked about what, exactly, bodies are for. I did my best,” she wrote about the self-esteem pep talk she gave her daughter.
Later, in a local bookstore, the mum and daughter duo noticed a magazine rack filled with covers flaunting perfectly photoshopped women. Melton continued the dialogue, explaining to her little girl that women’s bodies are worth so much more than selling things.
“That’s why this feels bad to you,” she told her. “Because this is a lie. There’s nothing wrong with you baby. There’s something wrong with THIS.”
Shortly after they returned home, the 10-year-old blew her away when she presented her with this petition:
This is everything.
Much as I will continue to frantically tell my own daughter that society’s crazy standards of beauty are NOT what being beautiful really means, teaching girls that beauty has nothing to do with skinny limbs or curvy behinds or botox or lip fillers is an issue that demands way more public attention, no?
How do YOU install body-love in your children? Let us know in the comments or tweet us at @Herfamilydotie
