i like me

off of the quote i saw yesterday, "“I am a straight woman, and I am confident about my appearance and happy with my body,” i had a quick chat about it with one of my female cousins. we both can say this affirmation without question, but also we understand that it is not the norm for other girls and women to be so confident in their selves.

we were raised similarly - first born children with amazingly supportive parents with tex-mex family values and moms who came of age in the 60's and 70's. to our parents, as little girls, we were basically the greatest thing since sliced bread. or big red. we've been doted upon all of our lives and only told that we are beautiful, intelligent, fantastic, awesome, etc, etc by all of our family.

of course, my cousin and i have had a few periods where we thought we were too skinny or too fat or something. cos all teenagers do. and when every other chick in your freshman class is freaking out about her body, you start to think something might be wrong with yours as well.

now as an adult, i exercise so that i don't die of a heart attack at age 35. i try to eat healthy cos i'm afraid of high cholesterol and diabetes. i wear high heels and cute dresses cos sometimes i want to be tall and i like feeling extra girly.

on the whole, we're probably two of the most well adjusted, self-loving, 20somethings i know. and i really think it goes back to how we were raised - by borderline overbearing families with never-ending affirmations.

i know all kids aren't raised this way. and it sucks. a number of my girlfriends have whined about bathing suits and body hugging tops and eating ice cream twice in one day, all largely things i barely give a second thought to. there is a problem with our society that causes women to think they're not as great as they could be. it's in advertising and media and elementary school textbooks. lucky for me, i had family that went against this and had a strong enough message repeated to me so often that i was able to tune-out the body-conscious lines i was being fed from all directions and instead was raised to think, hey, i'm pretty a-ok.

i think all little girls, awkward teenage girls, and half-grown 20something women should definitely be made aware of their awesomeness to fight off the still prevalent message that females need to fit into some sort of crazy idealized box. boys are generally raised by society to think they are fine as they are, girls still need to be reminded by people that care about them. it's stupid that the world works this way, in the year 2008, but in fact - it does.