I started feeling self conscious of what I look like in middle school. When I went through puberty I gained a lot of weight - a lot of kids do. I didn’t actually gain that much weight, but I felt a lot bigger than I wanted to be, which made me very self conscious. When I got to college, I started working out and being more aware of how I could be physically active and feel better about myself, but a huge thing that has impacted my self confidence is actually boys. I feel like a lot of relationships I’ve had that have been romantic or anything like that, they honestly come down to being all about the physical stuff, and that makes me feel awful about myself. I feel like they don’t care about who I am, they just care about what my body looks like, or how sexy I am, and it’s really frustrating.

      I went through a whole phase a few months ago of really hating my body even though I thought I looked really good and I didn’t like that I looked really good because that’s all people care about. It’s kind of backwards to what people think, but that’s how I’ve come full circle. I was really active when I was little and I really liked being skinny, and then you put on weight. It’s a normal thing, but I got really frustrated. Even my mom, she would say things like “You need to go on this diet” or ,“Let me go on this diet with you”, and tried to encourage me to lose weight. Part of it was my mom making me feel like I was fat. It’s this whole thing between society and what people expect you to look like.

     Honestly, don’t worry about the media or what anyone else thinks. You should be at a place where you are confident with yourself. If you want to lose weight, do it from a self motivational area, instead of “I need to look good because these people expect me to”. Everyone has their own body shape, and sometimes there’s no way to control that. Learn to be comfortable with yourself, and learn to love yourself.