Body shaming

After 20 months , as schools were restarting offline, I was thrilled and excited to be back to my carefree days of 
the hustle bustle in the corridors of my school. I was in grade 7, just entered my “teenage years of
adolescence”, where the pandemic hit the world. The best, most beautiful years of my school life were spent in
front of big screens without my friends or teachers' presence” .  As the D-day arrived, I had a sleepless night
about meeting my new teachers and old  friends .I was anxious and excited at the same time; I felt like I was on
top of the world. The moment I entered my school gate , it was a  topsy–turvy world. I saw totally different,
strange people. Many of my friends had grown tall or thin; some  boys had freckles and acne, and even
developed  hair on their faces. The girls of my age appeared different too. I could hardly recollect a few of my
classmates who seemed anorexic and weak to me. It appeared as though  I had entered a totally different
planet. 

Though everybody was thrilled and excited to be back to school, something seemed amiss. One of my friends,
who was always so jovial,  seemed so quiet now. He seemed to contract even more as people started to call
him Dumbledore from Harry Potter. Over the two years, he seemed to have grown tall and muscular. During
the break, when I entered the washroom, I saw one of my classmates throwing up. After persuading, she gave
in and broke down saying she suffers from bulimia to keep up with unrealistic standards of weight. I heard my
classmates  body shame each other throughout calling each other ungrateful names.

As I reached home after school, I was feeling so sad. The world suddenly didn’t feel right. It seemed like
everybody was only focused on their appearances; it felt like we are living in a society  where the body defines
who they are. I could see so much distress and low morale in the teenagers around, which could lead to a
plethora of psychological as well as physical problems. This would only get exacerbated  in this social
networking world, which has made our collective behavior contribute to the issue of body dysmorphic disorder
(BDD).

As I shared my experience with my mother, she gave a chuckle and said it's normal at this age and continued
with her chores. But to me it didn’t seem right or normal at all. I suddenly realized how the influence of society
has aggravated our behavior and raised a great deal of pressure on our appearance. In today’s world
youngsters get conscious about the way they look.

  This world has decided that being perfect means looking great outside; one’s talents and innate abilities are
rendered immaterial. Each day a person stands in front of the mirror wishing their body looked a different way.
For society you are always too skinny or too fat , you either get told to eat more or to eat less, leading one to
become conscious about how they appear. 

Society has given mind a definition of one being healthy based on how their outer appearance is. This only is
leading the pupils to lose self esteem and gain a sense of insecurity.  This also leads one's mind to criticize
themselves and are left with self doubt. Their mind becomes so conscious that one may start eating too much
or too less leading to eating disorders.

Body shaming is a form of bullying which can result in severe emotional trauma especially at a young age,
which leads to comparing themselves with others and not seeing their own beauty. This also leads to an
unconscious practice of criticizing others based on how they look. 

I am still in seventh grade but this made me realize how your mind can make you feel so worthless, i just want
people to look at people for who they are as a person and not judge them by their outer looks because one
cannot be perfect without imperfections. 

Everyone’s body is unique and beautiful.

If we lived in a world when everyone looked the same , our world would be really lame.

There’s beauty in every person , you just need to have the perspective to see it