Beauty

"My goal is to lose weight and be skinny and beautiful."

This poor girl. She wasn't even all that overweight, and she was already beautiful.

"What is beauty?" a fellow staff asked.

And thus began a conversation about a very common topic, but with teenagers who had an unfortunate amount of experience. Specifically speaking, from young women who struggled with eating disorders.

Listening them talk candidly about their past and current struggles, I wondered if the perspectives of society would shift if it had a chance to listen in. These girls were beautiful, smart, and honest. They talked about how society demanded so much of them, how they knew it was wrong but it was easier to follow along than stand out. For nearly an hour, we talked.

We talked about gender-specific stereotypes ("like a girl," "Make me a sandwich," etc.), about Victoria's Secret models, tv shows, movies, magazines. We talked about objectification, anxiety, and healthy ways to lose weight. I told them that according to the scale, I am obese. They stared at me; at a dress size 8, I do not in any way look it. I became a living example of how much muscle weighs more than fat.

After our discussion, we watched the Disney movie "Brave." As some of you may know, "Brave" is the only Disney princess movie where the princess (Merida) does not fall in love. So we talked about that too. They all agreed it was really nice to have that difference, and then we talked about why.

I don't know if these girls' perspectives on beauty and expectations are changed due to those conversations. I do know that, for a little while at least, I got them thinking.

And I got them asking "Why?"