My passion and purpose in this life is to empower girls to have strong self esteem and confidence. When I heard that Aerie, a sister company to American Eagle launched a new campaign called "Aerie Real," I knew immediately that I wanted to jump on board.
Images in the media have a HUGE influence on the way girls portray themselves.
The more I study girls self esteem and the more I gain a stronger passion to do something about it, the more I have been thinking and analyzing the example I am setting to be a role model for them. This is the reason I changed my profile pictures from Twitter and Facebook.
A few weeks ago, the picture below was the image I used for everything. Guess what? This photo has been photo shopped. The lighting, my hair volumized, a thinner chin...it's simply not the real me.
To be honest, sometimes I would stare at this picture and think, what would it take to become THAT girl in this image? I would critique myself for not being able to obtain the image captured in this altered picture. What a waste of time on something that doesn't even matter. Why strive to be the impossible? Beauty isn't flawless, it never has been.
No one in the entire world has ever been born perfect - perfect hair, perfect body, perfect skin - none of this can exist without a ton of work, surgeries, money, time, effort and photo shopping. So why is the media so obsessed with making girls appear effortlessly perfect?
We were given bodies to use as instruments. We use them to eat, run, laugh, work, and play. Our bodies were never meant to be ornaments that are decorated and admired by all.
Be proud and confident of your body just the way it is! If you want to workout, great!
But do it for the right reasons!
I've been on a workout routine the past several months. Why? Because I want to be healthy. I want to be the girl that proves she is stronger than she appears to be. I want to be the girl that sets goals and knows how to achieve them. My favorite part about working out is realizing that I am capable of so much more than what I tell my mind. If you work out, do it for YOU - don't do it to impress anyone else!
Thank you Aerie for not altering images.
Thank you for giving girls permission to be real.
Thank you for allowing girls to feel good about what they look like from the inside out.
Thank you for not retouching what was already beautiful!
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