Why do six out of ten girls stop doing what they love?
video via youtube
I remember when I started hating to wear a leotard to dance class.
I remember hating my chubby cheeks.
I remember hating the size of my jeans in sixth grade.
And seventh, and eighth, and my freshman year of college.
I remember counting calories the summer before I was a sophomore in high school.
I remember buying a control top nylons for prom.
I remember knowing that my crush didn't like me
because I wasn't as skinny as his new girlfriend.
I remember being the fat friend, the funny, but fat, friend.
And sometimes it took all I had to stick it out and keep doing what I loved.
No matter how much I hated the mirror image.
But now I'm older, and perhaps wiser.
And I can help break this cycle of comparison and hate.
In the video above I see beautiful girls,
and sadly I'm sure one day all they will see are their flaws.
As a mother, I want my girls to live, for every moment, every experience;
and be to blind to the numbers on the scale or on a waist band.
As a friend I want us all to see ourselves as who we are today.
Mothers, sisters, friends, daughters; smart and strong, beautifully built.
We are not the sum of our sizes.
Numbers should not define us.
Once we were six out of ten.
Now we are one of a kind.
