Teenagers lacking self-confidence in today’s society

Scrolling through Instagram, teenagers find seamless models, perfect celebrities and symmetrical faces. Characteristics like these are just some of the qualities social media highlights.

Looking at the ideal body type for society, teenagers come across these posts and might develop self-hatred and insecurities. They wonder why they do not look like that.

Society has built such a big stigma around bodies even though everyone’s body is different. Nobody should feel the need to meet this high standard in order to be happy or feel confident about themselves. Instead of trying to meet these standards, teenagers should start teaching themselves and the people around them how to love their body and everything about it.

Everyone in the world is different; there is no such thing as an ideal body type when there is self love. After all, confidence is key.  It diminishes the feelings of doubt and self-hatred.

Not only does body shaming happen to regular, everyday people, but it also happens to social media stars.

Charli D’Amelio is one of the youngest and biggest influencers on Tik Tok. At 16 years old, she has 99.2 million followers. In April, her followers were shaming her for looking like she had gained weight. Eventually, she was shamed into taking down a post of herself in a bikini. D’amelio is 119 pounds, there was no reason society should have done that to not only a 15-year-old girl (at the time), but also someone who was not overweight in any way.

In an interview with Kelsey Weekman, a reporter for In The Know (ITK). D’Amelio talked about the ongoing fact if you do not have a nice enough body, people will diminish each other.

“If you don’t look the part, and you’re too tall, too skinny, too short, too fat, too muscular — that was my problem, I was too muscular, so I wasn’t a ballerina,” D’Amelio said. “I couldn’t be, because that’s what people would tell me, and I believed it.”

No matter the weight, height, or appearance, others will still find a way to bring each other down.

In the same interview, D’Amelio also shared how it was not a place to tell someone if they are losing or gaining weight, which was part of the reason she removed the post.

“Why don’t we all just be respectful and understand that we should just be kind and uplift everyone instead of trying to bring others down.” D’Amelio said.