After the Victoria’s Secret fashion show yesterday there were so many posts by girls talking about the models, either saying “they’re so perfect, I want to be them,” or “they’re not real girls, they’re too skinny.” I just wanted to address something pertaining to both of these types of comments.

The Victoria’s Secret fashion show comes around once a year and as much as I absolutely adore the models and look forward to the show- it also makes a lot of girls around the world upset about their bodies. The models are creating images in one’s mind of the “perfect body,” which doesn’t exist. There’s only one body type that was shown in the fashion show that most likely only 1% of girls the US actually have. This creates the idea to all the rest of the girls that they aren’t the “chosen body,” yet they are lesser. These shows can build negative outcomes in a teenage girl’s mind. The effect of only having one type of body on this popular of a show (that probably all girls watch) will bring self-hate consequences. As hard as it is, we must try to push away negative media messages and be real with ourselves.

On the other hand, saying that these girls are “unhealthy” and “not real” isn’t what we need either. The quote “real women have curves” bothers me more than anything. Who is to say that these girls aren’t real, or healthy? We honestly cannot know, only the models themselves can know if they’re unhealthy. But what is unhealthy is the image of “perfect body” that the media has created.

“Hating your body won’t make you thin. And being thin won’t make you stop hating your body. Love yourself first.”