Unrealistic expectations

As I walk into the store, I automatically see celebrity magazines. Each striving to gain your attention as it seeks you, the buyer, to purchase and read it.

Angelina Jolie, Jessica Biel, Jessica Alba, Hally Berry, Kate Moss, and Eva Longoria are only a few of the women who grace the covers of such magazines. People, US, Star, Life & Style are such magazines. US magazine recently had an article about Lauren Conrad losing six stubborn pounds. As I saw it, she was already too skinny. Conrad “sticks to a daily 1,500-calorie diet of six mini-meals and twice-weekly weight lifting and treadmill sessions.” “Is that even healthy?” I ask. What is the world coming to when losing six pounds makes the cover of a magazine? Also in the same issue LeAnn Rimes is shrined for losing weight to become a size two. In the picture it shows of Rimes, you can see her ribs. What type of influences are these magazines trying to be? It is no wonder this world has issues with eating disorders.

As I look into the mirror, I see mistake after mistake. Gosh! Is that a pimple I see? Those arms, they jiggle as I wave them around. I’m so pale. I need to get a tan. Do I need to be a blond? Do I need to go on an extreme diet to lose 10 or 15 pounds? My teeth aren’t white enough. Oh dear, my thighs are thunder thighs. These are but few of the thoughts that pass through a woman’s mind every day. As women keep looking into the world, as we keep buying these magazines, we are going to keep comparing ourselves to the lips of Angelina Jolie or the flat stomach of Kate Moss.

Plastic surgery, lipo suction, botox, and many other practices make the search to be perfect seem a little bit easier. But is it reality? Angelina Jolie is number one for most requested lips for plastic surgeons. “I want to raise my eyelids for a more open look or make my top lip a little bit fuller,” some women say. I ask them, “Will you ever really look like Jessica Alba or Jessica Biel, even after hours of cosmetic surgery?” The answer is blunt but true — probably not. What is this world coming to? Why can’t we accept ourselves for who we truly are and what we truly look like? Will women ever have confidence in their self-images to truly believe in who they are? Will they ever stop comparing one to another?

I at least have reached my reality, I will never be a model walking the runaway making millions of dollars for how beautiful the critics think I am. I will never have kids with Brad Pitt, nor will I return to a size two in six weeks after having kids. But that won’t stop me believing in who I am — because I know who I am. I know I am beautiful. I have goals and ambitions I am working toward. I have confidence in the woman I am. I don’t have to be on the covers of magazines or in the movies to look glamorous. I am me, and that’s glamorous enough.