I’ve had a quote on my stardoll profile for a while now, it has gathered some attention and it’s one I’m quite fond of. It goes ‘You don’t have to look like the girl in the magazine, the girl in the magazine doesn’t look like the girl in the magazine.’ I wanted to talk a little more about this.

I’ve always been fond of fashion since a very young age, I want to be a fashion designer so more than anything I found myself looking at these beautiful, perfect models; sometimes thinking to myself that I wanted to look like that when I grew up.

I didn’t realise until I was older that there was in fact an army of professionals whose jobs it is to retouch and photoshop these ladies into these beautifully perfect figures I looked up to.

Later in my teens I found myself watching videos on how to contour my face skinny, how to tan so that I would appear thinner, ways to diet, how to dress to hide my ‘excess’ fat; when in reality I was a perfectly healthy and beautiful human being with the lowest self esteem.

The problem with human beings is that we are taught to compare things. While studying we are taught to compare our exam answers to mark schemes, we compare celebrities wearing similar outfits, in job applications an interviewer will compare you with another candidate, is it any surprise that this applies here too?

My point is, you might need to compare yourself to others sometimes, but don’t need to here. You are beautiful, and you don’t look like the model in the magazine. But that’s okay because she doesn’t either, in fact she is just like you.

Much Love,

Lilrosamae x