Hey guys!! Diana here :)
It's been a while, sorry. I have a lot of stuff going on and my emotions have been all over the place so I've been feeling like I haven't really had much to blog about. Well at least I didn't, up until a few days ago. Actually this is going to be more of a rant...
Before I go on, take a few minutes to watch these (or at least one of them):
It's been a while, sorry. I have a lot of stuff going on and my emotions have been all over the place so I've been feeling like I haven't really had much to blog about. Well at least I didn't, up until a few days ago. Actually this is going to be more of a rant...
Before I go on, take a few minutes to watch these (or at least one of them):
Yep. My topic today is Photoshop. If there is one thing I hate more than anything else in this world is this, photoshop. It's a silent virus, a masked evil. I am so beyond happy that people are putting this out in the open now. You see I grew up with magazines. When I was in Jr High I was freaking obsessed with them. And I would see all of those pictures and all of those models and I would hate myself. I'm not skinny, I don't have "perfect skin tone", I have freckles all over my cheeks and scars all over my arms and legs. I was never going to look like them. But guess what? Not even they are ever going to look like them!!
If I ever have a daughter, she's not touching a People or Cosmopolitan until she's 16, maybe even until she's 18. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying magazines are the devil, they are quite entertaining. But I will not have the risk of having my daughter skipping meals at 12 because she wants to look like some model she saw in a magazine. If you know your worth, if you know how beautiful you truly are, then magazines might not hurt you. But for most of us, they are triggering.
And although magazines are not precisely evil, photoshop is. You know what photoshop says?? It says "Oh hey, you're so pretty!! But wait, hold on, you're actually NOT that pretty. So I'm gonna fix a few things and then you'll be stunning! You'll thank me later." Correct me if I'm wrong, but I find that awful. I think that's disgusting. And during my first teenage years I was trying my best to look like them because no one told me I didn't have to.
Well guess what? You don't have to look like them.
The media sells us this idea of "perfection". Of having to look a certain way in order to be beautiful. I had to learn the hard way that the only person that can define beautiful for you, is you. Think about it, if you don't think you're beautiful, why not? Is it because someone told you so? Is it because of these pictures? Whatever it is, I can guarantee you it's a lie. And don't even get me started on the guys. Girls, if you think we have it bad...you have no idea how much worse the guys have it. They have to live up to so much more than we do. So much more.
Faith and I always talk about the future of this ministry. We talk about opening up a recovery center someday, about having fun stuff for you guys (sorry, no spoilers) to do there. One of the things we want to do is related to fitness. You see the model in the second video? She's an everyday girl, but she's fit. She even says, she has to train. That's what we want for you guys. We want you to be comfortable in your own skin, no matter the size. If you want to be fit, toned, healthy but still want to have pie for breakfast, that's fine. And if you like your weight, you're not into exercise and you'd rather spend your time doing something else but you'd like to check out a fitness class, that's fine too. And even though that's our plan for the future, that can be your plan for today. You can start to feel comfortable in your own skin today.
The pictures we see all around us give completely unrealistic expectations of what beauty is. I could say something super wise or thought provoking but I can't, and I won't.
Instead I'm going to challenge you. This is called the "Think Outside the Box" challenge. Here's how it goes: Whenever you see one of those pictures, I want you to try to think about how many possible alterations they could have done, removing sun spots, wrinkles, reducing this, enlarging that, etc etc. Then I want you to try to count them, once you've done that try to picture whoever is in the picture like any regular kid from down the block. No make up, no perfect hair, no perfect abs, nothing. Because that's who they are, they are just as human as you and I and they are just as vulnerable to pimples as you and I are. And that does not mean they are not beautiful or handsome.
So, there's my rant. This is a little dose of reality we all need. The sooner we learn this, the better.
~Diana
If I ever have a daughter, she's not touching a People or Cosmopolitan until she's 16, maybe even until she's 18. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying magazines are the devil, they are quite entertaining. But I will not have the risk of having my daughter skipping meals at 12 because she wants to look like some model she saw in a magazine. If you know your worth, if you know how beautiful you truly are, then magazines might not hurt you. But for most of us, they are triggering.
And although magazines are not precisely evil, photoshop is. You know what photoshop says?? It says "Oh hey, you're so pretty!! But wait, hold on, you're actually NOT that pretty. So I'm gonna fix a few things and then you'll be stunning! You'll thank me later." Correct me if I'm wrong, but I find that awful. I think that's disgusting. And during my first teenage years I was trying my best to look like them because no one told me I didn't have to.
Well guess what? You don't have to look like them.
The media sells us this idea of "perfection". Of having to look a certain way in order to be beautiful. I had to learn the hard way that the only person that can define beautiful for you, is you. Think about it, if you don't think you're beautiful, why not? Is it because someone told you so? Is it because of these pictures? Whatever it is, I can guarantee you it's a lie. And don't even get me started on the guys. Girls, if you think we have it bad...you have no idea how much worse the guys have it. They have to live up to so much more than we do. So much more.
Faith and I always talk about the future of this ministry. We talk about opening up a recovery center someday, about having fun stuff for you guys (sorry, no spoilers) to do there. One of the things we want to do is related to fitness. You see the model in the second video? She's an everyday girl, but she's fit. She even says, she has to train. That's what we want for you guys. We want you to be comfortable in your own skin, no matter the size. If you want to be fit, toned, healthy but still want to have pie for breakfast, that's fine. And if you like your weight, you're not into exercise and you'd rather spend your time doing something else but you'd like to check out a fitness class, that's fine too. And even though that's our plan for the future, that can be your plan for today. You can start to feel comfortable in your own skin today.
The pictures we see all around us give completely unrealistic expectations of what beauty is. I could say something super wise or thought provoking but I can't, and I won't.
Instead I'm going to challenge you. This is called the "Think Outside the Box" challenge. Here's how it goes: Whenever you see one of those pictures, I want you to try to think about how many possible alterations they could have done, removing sun spots, wrinkles, reducing this, enlarging that, etc etc. Then I want you to try to count them, once you've done that try to picture whoever is in the picture like any regular kid from down the block. No make up, no perfect hair, no perfect abs, nothing. Because that's who they are, they are just as human as you and I and they are just as vulnerable to pimples as you and I are. And that does not mean they are not beautiful or handsome.
So, there's my rant. This is a little dose of reality we all need. The sooner we learn this, the better.
~Diana