One of my goals as a mom is to teach my daughter to love her body. However perfect or imperfect it is and becomes, as she grows up, I want her to love it.
She may have chubby legs, skinny legs, a small booty, a big booty, or whatever. I want her to embrace her body and always be comfortable in her skin.
But I know from experience how hard that is to do. I am still working on it!
I was a skinny kid. With no boobs. And I got teased for that. My sister was a little overweight, with big boobs, and she got teased for that. It’s all body shaming, which is just another form of bullying. And like any type of bullying, I want to protect my daughter from it. And never let someone else’s opinion affect how she views her own body.
My daughter is almost nine-year old, which may seem young for me to be thinking about it. But she’s starting to notice her body, and she has recently heard some of her favorite celebrities get publicly body shamed.
Just this week, P!nk was in the news after she wore a gorgeous dress to an event. She looked beautiful. But the internet trolls went crazy on her. The comments about her on social media were cruel and vicious. I thought she looked fabulous. But that doesn’t even matter because it shouldn’t be anyone else’s business.
P!nk handled it all flawlessly though. Here is her awesome response on Twitter.
“I feel beautiful”, she said. And she should. Good for her.
You can read the whole story here.
I know celebrity body shaming is nothing new… pretty much every pregnant celebrity that doesn’t lose all the baby weight within a month of giving birth, gets shamed. Kelly Clarkson has been a target. Recently she has been repeatedly, publicly bullied, and even called a “Chunky Monkey”, by a British TV Personality. Awful.
But just like P!nk, Kelly Clarkson has handled it with grace. She had a great response, in a recent Redbook interview.
Kudos to her for that fabulous attitude. That is exactly what I want my daughter to learn. Beauty is what is on the inside, not the outside. And everyone has some fabulous-ness within them. It’s important to focus on that instead.
I am going to work hard to reinforce that concept with my daughter as she grows up. I will find ways to help her always be proud of whatever body she ends up with. And to embrace what is on the inside.
It may not be an easy thing to teach, but I am glad some celebrities are standing up for themselves against the bullies, so eloquently. I just read P!nk’s Twitter comment to my daughter and she thought it was great too. She said to me, “I’m glad she still feels beautiful and happy, and not sad because of the people being mean to her”. “Me too”, I said.
Our conversation inspired me to write a simple letter of advice to my daughter. I hope she will look at this letter often and will always remember these words.
~Cindie xo
#LoveYourselfAlways
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I loved your post. I think it’s absolutely beautiful. I hope to teach my daughters the same.
Thanks Susan!
What a beautiful post! I can totally understand where you are coming from as I reinforce Olivia about such issues. Thank you so much for sharing on #wineandboobs 🙂
Thanks for reading! Love #wineandboobs!