Undergraduate /
Common App Essay - "You're pretty, for a fat girl." [4]
Please give me feedback, edits, and critiques especially in the grammar department! This is my first ROUGH draft so I can get all the help that can be provide! Thank you in advance!
Describe a problem you've solved or a problem you'd like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma--anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution."You're pretty, for a fat girl." I stare at the magazine image of the model then I glance at myself. I've never admitted to anyone, that I hate the way I look; my wide hips and puffy face, from the outside it never got the best of me, but on the inside its ripping me to pieces. I've cried myself to sleep wondering if there was cure for loving myself.
Since fourth grade, I've struggled with my weight. I've always known that not everyone should be as round as me, but I never wanted to believe it. When people stare or "compliment" me for actually being slightly attractive even if I'm over weight. I've just tried my best to ignore them. I don't think people realize what they are saying. In reality it hurts me more than calling me ugly. There not saying I'm pretty, there saying my face is pretty. To disconnect someone's face from from there body. Some people don't realize what there actually saying, but I didn't realize that. On the inside it began to tear up the person that I was, I started going on ridiculous diets that just made me sick hoping that the pounds would just shed off, but they didn't.
It shows that society today has an weird twisted version of beauty. That a part of someone can be pretty, but the person themselves is not, shamming or in this particular situation body shamming. People say the strangest things to me, they act like because I'm bigger I cannot achieve certain things or their shocked on what Im capable of doing. I'm in charge of emceeing my schools pep assemblies and one time; afterwards a parent told me how shocked they were, because they couldn't believe I gave off so much confidence and was able to speak in front of my peers looking the way I do. I don't know if they were trying to give me an compliment or they were trying to be rude, but it kills me on why they would even say that. Why does self image reflect the person as an whole? Does this mean that plus sized people shouldn't be able to talk in front of an coward so easy.
It's not just bigger girls that get this comment; it's all different types. People will say "Oh, you look really pretty with makeup on," or "You're pretty, for being this skinny." Why can't people just say "You're pretty"? It's because models, celebrities, etc. control todays "true" beauty.
It's time to build up awareness of the cause that not everyone is an 2, but instead most people are closer to the size 12 or 22. Starting an campaign would began the awareness that is needed in order to stop the body shamming. It should be plastered on every single social site and each and every street corner. Women from all different shapes and sizes shouldn't feel less beautiful than the women next to her. Why should there be an body type when it comes to modeling; normal and plus sized. Women of all different body types should be thrown on the canvas. Tess Holiday is the first plus sized supermodel, she broke barriers. She began to give me, hope that one day not every single model will look the same in images. I slowly became comfort in my own skin again, because someone gave me the hope to do so. Just reading an magazine article of an "first" was the self- love that I needed to figure out not to body sham myself anymore. This slow progression is what's needed for the generations to come, someone to show us something different because without that we cannot grow. Now when someone says "You're pretty, for a fat girl," I reply "No, I'm sorry. I'm pretty period."
