Recently a friend texted me photos of us back in high school. It’s always fun to see how much we’ve changed (hey braces, I remember you), but also how technology has. Gone are the days of toting around digital cameras (I think I lost about four between high school and college) everywhere you go. Now we have way better cameras on our phones and lots of apps to make our photos (and ourselves) better than ever. I don’t have a daughter, but I have coached elementary and middle school girls in volleyball, and it has made me think about what it would be like to grow up in this day and age. When we were young, it was the celebrities who were airbrushed…now it’s our peers.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen photos of myself and thought that I looked out of shape or unattractive. I’ve asked friends to take photos down. We’ve all been there I think – who wants to look bad in a photo? Who hasn’t been self-conscious of how they may look compared to other friends? I can see how it’s tempting to fix those insecurities now – it’s easy to take your waist in or make your legs look longer or edit a photo to have more defined abs. We all probably know someone who edits their photos so much that when you see the person in real life, the juxtaposition is shocking. I also have friends who edit photos who own up to it, which I find somewhat refreshing, but also, why has that become something that people assume they have to do?
Why I’m discussing this here is because I don’t want to add to the false sense of beauty we now have. I like to be, as this page suggests, real, so I wanted to share that on my social media and website what you see is what you get, so to speak. My waist is my waist. My legs are the length they are. Sometimes I may look more toned than other times. My weight may fluctuate (I see you, December). That’s life. I’ve never been great at editing photos (to be honest, I’m just not that savvy when it comes to photography), so I may lighten a photo or throw a filter on, but I just wanted to be clear that I won’t ever be changing my body.
The intention of this post is not to shame anyone or pat myself on the back, it’s just to share principles that I have established for myself and for The Bets Life. As the phenomenal Lizzo sings: “Mirror, mirror on the wall/ Don’t say it, ‘cause I know I’m cute,” and no one (myself included) needs a photo editing app to tell them otherwise.
