This topic is near and dear to my heart because I am a powerful, independent woman who focuses a big part of my life and future career on the premise of social media. I am quickly becoming a social media guru. I swear I think about content, pictures, captions, clever headlines and the peak times to post in my sleep. Believe it or not, it is a lot more complicated than you might think. As a millennial, I wasn't necessarily raised with social media as a platform throughout my whole childhood, but I went through my teenage years along side my followers on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. However, I see through the lens of what social media is doing to me and those a few years younger than me.
Self respect. Self worth. Those two qualities make the top of my list for the most important. As I've grown and developed into the woman I am today these four words have remained engrained in my mind. I have chosen role models such as Audrey Hepburn and Faith Hill to look up to. What I have noticed in my observation of the way girls and women are evolving is that we are losing our self respect. We are losing our desire to be classy. If there is one goal I set out to strive for, it is to remain classy. As women, we have so much potential to work together to bring up a positive environment where we don't feel like we are going to be judged if we don't wear makeup to school or get the most likes on an Instagram photo. We are more than capable of empowering each other to respect ourselves and our bodies. To cherish the body and mind that we were given on this earth to use for amazing things. Posting scandalous photos on Snapchat where your chest is the center of it all is not what our gender was meant to be doing. We live in a generation where it is possible for women to vote. It is possible for women to become the President. It is possible for women to serve on the front line of our military. It is possible for women to do anything they wish to do.
So instead of flaunting the shortest shorts you could buy from the mall or sleeping with the entire football team, hold yourself to a standard of decency and grace. Hold yourself to the standard that in 2016 it is possible for women to do anything and everything. Our bodies are capable of housing a human being for petes sake, so why is it so hard to respect it? It hurts my heart for the people who can't seem to figure that out. The sad truth to it is social media.
Girls are being taught that without 300 likes on an Instagram photo and 25 retweets on your selfie on Twitter, that you mean nothing. That you're invisible. That you don't matter. Our girls are being taught that you get more attention by wearing more makeup and wearing less clothing. Instead of being taught the value of true beauty, our girls are being taught to live their standards based on the click of a button or lack there of. We need to be teaching these girls that who they are is the most amazing thing there ever will be. We need to be teaching them to be comfortable in their own skin whether that skin be freckled, pale, tan, black, white or even rainbow. When I think someone is beautiful, is when they respect themselves. I look up to women around me that carry themselves with an air of confidence, but remained poised. I look up to the women that look beautiful without having to show the world what is underneath their clothes or douse themselves in makeup. I look up to the women that demand respect from men in friendships, relationships and even by strangers. I look up to women that respect the amazing people they are without having to convince other people of it.
This is such a passionate subject for me because I have younger sisters. I have watched them grow and go through the growing pains of trying to fit in. I have seen them struggle wanting to get the attention they deserve. I myself went through it. It truly is a hard time in this world to be growing up and changing right before the eyes of all your followers. But if there is one thing I wish I could go back and tell myself is that you don't need to pretend to be someone you aren't. You don't need to vie for the attention of a guy that only wants you for one reason. Find yourself. Fall in love with who you are and I promise the best guy will follow it. Once you've accomplished loving yourself, you will find what you love to do. You will find what makes you happy. You will find your friends, what you like and don't like and you will find what makes you special.
Treating your body and your mind like the priceless commodity it is will only give you exuberate benefits in the end. I can't stress this enough that the more you respect yourself and your body, the more people will respect you. The more people will admire you and look up to you which is what the women of the millennial generation and generations to come need most in this society. It's a hard journey to find self love, but I promise it is worth every step. True beauty radiates from self love, self respect and self worth. This world is full of incredible opportunities for women so don't waste it. You only need your own approval.
XO- Sydney Lauren
