I have been made aware of this campaign for a few years, but now that I have a daughter, I have begun to think about it more often. What will our world be like when she is a teenager? I actually see the way so many teenage girls are now, and think back to my teenage years in awe. It was definitely an issue, but it is increasing dramatically before our eyes. Women are not beautiful, sexy, or model material unless they are model skinny. When I was younger, the girls were always mean to one another (and I have news for you, they never change) and now on top of all the emotional and hormonal issues teenagers and women face in life, why would we need to be ridiculed by the media and fashion industry? I personally has always been teased for being tall and skinny, but gained weight at 20 due to meds from a few surgeries. I felt confident in myself, until I went shopping at my favorite stores. I was now a size 10-12, and it was difficult to find clothes! The sale racks are always small sizes, and now Express only carries up to size 12. The average size of the American woman is a size 14, so apparently Express is only catering to the skinny gals. I remember when Express use to have more modest, preppy clothes and they did run past a size 12. What happened? Now when I see teenage girls, I see so many girls dieting, I mean if your a woman and not dieting, there is something wrong with you apparently. I just had a baby and I am back to my pre-pregnancy weight by nothing short of a miracle. I did nothing to loose it officially (I mean I have an infant so I don't have time to eat and I run the stairs a lot). However my belly looks like jello and left over pregnancy rolls. I honestly have no rush to loose it because honestly I have no time, and because hey I just had a baby! However every magazine and website for new moms tell you how to loose that weight fast. Why? I understand we want to loose the baby weight, but why do we have to rush back to attempting to look perfect when we just carried another human inside us for 9 months?
Teenage girls today are having sex younger and growing up so much quicker due to dealing with emotional issues and decisions they are not ready to make. Every commercial on TV is a diet, every book featured in bookstores are dieting books. I mean how can our daughters not be affected by it? The media is showering us with picture perfect models and diet commercials. If your not skinny your imperfect which is unacceptable to society. The Dove campaign is a breathe of fresh air because they actually have the guts to put it out there and defend the beauty of all women. I will be more impressed when stores stop making sizes so tiny, and when more "average women" are placed in the media. What do you think our world will be like when my daughter is 16?
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