Society’s “Glow Up” Trend is Harming Us: Don't Let Peer Pressure Change Who You Are
I once gave myself almost 100 rules: how I was allowed to wear my hair; what, when, and where I was allowed to eat; how I was allowed to dress; even what actions I could do in front of others. This is all because I felt “ugly.” I don’t know if it was because of what my friends said or just simply the fact I had never received the attention I craved. I watched my friends fall in and out of love while I never got that experience. I was hard on myself because of it, and the people in my life at that time didn’t always make it easier.
After graduating high school, I learned how to dress, do my hair, and started doing my makeup every day. But mostly, I lost weight from disordered eating. This started a spiral of strict perfectionism: if I didn’t look “perfect,” I wasn’t allowed to love myself. To stay in line, I spent hours writing lists with detailed rules to keep the attention I gained.
For a long time, I lost myself in believing I was finding myself. One day, I looked at my reflection, gazing at the girl I had dreamed of becoming, and realized I hated her.
She was boring, had lost her goofy personality that made a room smile, and wasn’t there for those who loved her anymore. All her time was spent chasing a temporary high from pretend love. She yelled at anyone who called her out for who she had become. Looking back, I lost a lot of people in this period due to my actions.
I believe the world puts too much pressure on young adults to meet impossible standards. Why are we expected to stay the same weight we were as children? More importantly, why does someone else’s weight matter to any of us? I will always become nauseous when someone uses an old photo of someone they dislike to shame that person and feel better about themselves. I spend a lot of time in deep disappointment that the world associates weight gain as a failure. That we believe weight is a table conversation appropriate for small talk. When the truth is that almost 30 million Americans, 1 in 10 people, will struggle with an eating disorder in their lifetime. All for the disturbed mirage of health and the fear of being known as someone who gained weight after high school.
Just know this: if you have allowed your body the grace it requires, especially if it’s changed as you’ve aged, then you are the one who has achieved true success.
You should be so extremely proud that you are taking care of your health, allowing a life with the fullness of possibility many will lose. Even if it’s hard, know that you’re the one who is treating your body with kindness and love. You are winning against a world so cruel. I have the highest form of admiration for you because you are the ones who didn’t feed into the largest falsehood among young adults.
