Hello and welcome back to The Visual Aspect! It has been about three weeks now and the break has come to an end. I have moved apartments, settled into my new place, and I only have about one box left to unpack. I always love moving into a new place! There is this fresh new energy here and I can’t wait to make new memories. I took a few weeks off so that I can give myself enough time to move. That break also gave me time to think of what I wanted to accomplish next with my blog.
I want to share more personal posts with you! To start back up on my blog, I want to share my own experience when it comes to body positivity. When I was younger I would struggle with how I looked because I was naturally very muscular. I would get self-conscious about what I wore because in my head it would make my arms look to “masculine”. Fast forward to me at 26 and I get so bloated from eating a little too much cheese. I guess that’s what happens when you grow older right?! haha
Let me give some context to this whole scenario that’s going through my mind at 14 years old. I grew up dancing ballet for most of my life, I almost made it to 20 years. When I was in high school I would be in the studio 7 days a week. I would also work out a bunch because I wanted to be the best ballerina I train to be. I would always watch so many videos on YouTube of my favorite ballerinas. They were so strong and muscular but extremely graceful at the same time. I told myself I wanted to be and look exactly like them. Even when I had the most confidence in myself there was still that voice in my head. Those thoughts would say, “is being so muscular actually cute?”
Most of my friends had much softer features than me. They also were getting all the attention from the cute boys. So, I started to doubt myself a little bit and feel self-conscious. I thought boys weren’t talking to me or liked me and it was because of how I looked. I really loved how I was becoming the best dancer I could be inside the ballet studio. In social settings, like at the pool, it would be a different mindset. I thought maybe looking like I could beat these guys in an arm-wrestling matching wasn’t that appealing. And that is the thought process of this girl going through puberty LOL
Mind you this was almost 10 years ago, and I feel like every person goes through their own insecurities. I remember several years ago Nike just came out with their Beautiful X Powerful collection. Nike’s campaign was centered around Strong Is the New Beautiful. Seeing those women in the photos, kicking ass in the gym looking ripped AF. I was able to relate to those posters. Although it had been years later, I felt like my 14-year-old self was being acknowledged. Seeing that acknowledgment from society that being super muscular was not a masculine trait. To this day I catch myself not trying
It also comes as a reminder that I, along with everyone else, needs to be kind to one another. We all have our quirks and things about our bodies that we don’t necessarily like. You are beautiful in whatever shape, size, color, ethnicity, and sexual orientation you are:) Another reminder is to not be a hater or jealous of other people because that ain’t cute on anyone!
