I find it fascinating how the things that girls like us were teased about growing up (such as our full lips and our derrieres) are the very things today that Women are spending thousands of Pounds (or Dollars/Euros depending on where you are from) on plastic surgery to create. It makes me think that all of the contention I had towards my curves, as an awkward teenager growing up in London, was for nothing. It's amazing how beauty standards can change from one decade to the next. I remember that I used to find it so hard to get Jeans and Trousers to fit me properly and God forbid you ever find a pencil skirt in my wardrobe back then. It's was during my late teens where I began to get involved with the music industry and I found the pressure to look a certain way so intense, because "Being an artist is all about glamour glamour glamour, all of the time" as my then manager put it.
However, I reached a point, I think I may have been 21 years old, where I said to myself, I am who I am for a reason, not by mistake, but for a reason and it is not my fault that fashion houses are perhaps not using fitting models with a similar shape to mine, so that the clothes fit me properly, or that there isn't a greater representation of girls like me in the music industry or the media. I am not going to waste time waiting for the powers-that-be to accept my standard of beauty, and it changed everything. Does it mean that I never feel insecure about the way I look? No, but I stopped waiting to be celebrated and began learning how to celebrate myself.
Today, I think that the pressure to look a certain way is potentially worse than it has ever been thanks to Social Media, but I would say the same thing to you as I did to myself back then. You are perfect and unique just as you are. Have fun with your image, embrace whatever you consider to be your flaws but at the same time recognise that the things that you may consider to be your flaws are actually your strengths and the things that will set you apart.
I have a friend called Sarah, from Nashville, USA, in fact she's more than a friend, I consider her a sister. She is Gorgeous and beautiful in every way! Sarah has a skin condition that causes her skin to scar. However it is these scars that have set Sarah apart, and caused her to start modelling professionally and be featured in the biggest newspaper in the UK, the Daily Mail; and so much more. Why? Because she embraces the very thing that others may have thought would hold her back. A condition that perhaps even she thought would stop her has been the very thing that has opened massive doors for Sarah and given her an incredible platform to inspire other women. Check her out on Instagram @ThatGirlWithTheStoryOnHerFace
These things can only happen when we cherish who we really are!
I hope this post serves as a little reminder that you are amazing! Forget about whatever the latest standard of beauty is and recognise that you are your own standard.
Rachelle xx