In today's modern world, beauty standards are very high. This younger generation is obsessed with good looks, a perfect body, and branded clothes to gain fame and glamour. People are becoming more look conscious. Body shaming is quite common around the world. If you look on Instagram, Twitter, or any other social media, you will see people constantly criticizing each other for their body shape, complexion, skin problems, and of course clothing. All this criticism leads to depression, anxiety, social withdrawal, and other mental health issues. People are trying to fit in this so called "perfect world".

Body positivity is a movement that promotes acceptance of the body regardless, of size, shape, skin tone, gender, and physical ability. This movement focuses on the appreciation of health and a person's ability to do things instead of their physiological appearance. The movement challenges the unrealistic ideals of Physical appearance, builds positive body image and improves self-confidence. People are encouraged to not only accept their bodies, but also encourage self-love and embrace their physical traits. Some people have criticized the movement, for normalizing being overweight while ignoring the health concerns, the body positivity is definitely a good thing, but overlooking health issues is not.

Overweight is associated with health risks such as:

• Diabetes

• High blood pressure

• Breathing problems

• Gallbladder disease

• Joint conditions

Benefits of positive body image

• Less depression
• High self-esteem
• Lower drive for perfect body

Psychology :

Body positivity also aims to change society's and individual's perceptions of body image because it is linked with mental health. A person's perception of their body can highly influence their mental health. Poor body image can develop some mental health conditions in an individual, such as depression, avoiding social gatherings, anorexia, bulimia nervosa, and body dysmorphic disorder. Low self-esteem is one of the major concerns about these beauty standards, when people cannot keep up with these standards they feel worthless, rejected, criticized, and insecure, which leads to low self-esteem. Low self-esteem holds you back from moving forward, going out, take initiative because your self-confidence has been broken. So, accepting ourselves as we are can help build a love for ourselves and embracing our flaws can help you see that you are beautiful inside and out.

Tips to promote self-esteem:

• Surround yourself with positive people
• Avoid comparisons
• Embrace your physical traits
• Learn to be assertive

Inspiring words

You don’t have to change a thing                                                                                                                                           a world could change its heart                                                                                                                                           you should know you're beautiful just the way you are.