If I Were a Beauty Blogger

If I were a beauty blogger, I would have one message that I would want to share with everyone: your body is beautiful. Yes, it is different from the body of the person sitting next to you, and yes, that body is beautiful too, but so is yours. Variety is the spice of life, and when it comes to our bodies, baby, our world is like a fiery salsa.

I find it interesting and sad that so many (myself included, but I'll step out of that role here to make my point) spend so much time and effort trying to get their bodies to look like someone else's. When we are so ready to celebrate the diversity in our heritage, our lifestyles, our passions and interests, why is it so hard to celebrate the diversity in our body types? When someone asks, "Tell me about yourself," we don't say "I like a good night's rest, I don't enjoy being betrayed, and pictures of small baby animals make me feel all warm and cuddly inside." Why? We already assume those things because they're true for most people, so it isn't necessary to point them out. Instead we look to share things that make us unique, and we hope other people will reciprocate--when we enjoy conversing with an interesting individual, it's because they have something different to share than everyone else. We spend so much of our energy trying to be unique and stand out from the crowd. Why don't we approach our bodies that way?

Many people will dress to hide away or disguise something that's different about them. Short people dress to look taller. A broad-shouldered person dresses to fill out their bottom half to look more balanced. I'm not saying these are bad ideas (in fact, I would downright recommend the tips those beauty blogs give), but what if we just slightly altered the way we perceived what we're doing? What if instead of trying to camouflage my comedically large hips, I celebrate them as something that makes me unique? What if instead of envying clothes that "I can't pull off" because of my body shape, I thought of all the clothes that do look great on me? What if instead of lamenting that my skin is too pale, I just owned it, and other people appreciated that difference? I know many people are already good at seeing themselves this way, but there are also many of us that have a lot of work to do.

Be healthy. Our bodies are a gift from God, and we should take care of them. But if you're doing that, then take heart with however your body lands from there. Celebrate that you don't look like everyone else. Celebrate that the people around you don't look exactly like you. Celebrate before you lament.