It is no surprise that some of the biggest campaigns going around the media right now are for body positivity since there are so many unrealistic expectations set for people to look “perfect.” With the increasing amount of people posting on social media, there is also an increasing number of people responding with hate. Someone is either too tall, too skinny, too big, too short, too brown, too pale, too masculine, too feminine, wearing too much or not enough makeup, too pretty, too perfect, too insecure, or too confident. It seems as if no matter what, there is no way to win. Everyone is so critical of everything that people do and how people look that they feel the need to bring people down to make it known that they aren’t the way they “should be.” In this era of unnecessarily high beauty standards for all people, we need as much positivity we can get.

One of these campaigns is #perfectlyme on Instagram. The company is partnering with the magazine Seventeen, and the hashtag will highlight women and men of all ages from the Instagram community who are rocking their self-confidence and embracing their own uniqueness. In this day in age, body insecurities are beginning in children as young as 5 years old. Although body image is influenced by many factors, the media is one of the major sources. Young children engage with some of the more extreme body portrayals in media in the form of dolls and action figures. From that spark of self-doubt, the hate continues to grow and can result in deadly eating disorders or extreme actions to form their body to a “perfect” one. In the United States, over 20 million women and 10 million men have suffered from a clinically significant eating disorder at some time in their life, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder.

An anonymous female Kadet spoke about her experience with an eating disorder:

“I weighed myself when I woke up in the morning, when I came home from school, and right before I went to bed. I only allowed myself 500 calories a day, and everything I ate, I wrote down in a journal. I would work out until I couldn’t stand. Even though I was losing an average of 1 pound a day, I was never happy. It was an incredibly restricted lifestyle, and I’m so glad I am no longer living that negative lifestyle.”

Another member of the Kadet family, Ms. Austgen, talked about her struggles with her weight as a model in college. She said that she looked good, but she wasn’t truly the way she wanted. Even with all her weight loss, her agency still wanted more and more. Her dieting routine soon deviated from what was healthy and she went as far as supplementing her minimal food intake with paper towels to feel full. Looking back now, she says, “What matters isn’t the size of your trousers, it’s the size of your heart.”

While women are more commonly affected by eating disorders, millions of men and boys battle all forms of the illness.

Junior Kadet, Micah Wilborn, said, “As a guy, there’s a lot more expectation to be “manly” than some can be. And that creates a strong lack of self-confidence when you don’t meet those standards.”

Body issues are starting to gain more recognition for males these days and some are starting to push for more recognition for self-love. Therefore, the #perfectlyme campaign couldn’t have come at a better time.

“I believe that all people struggle through life, and body image is one thing that pushes most people to the edge. Yet all body sizes are beautiful and perfect, just the way they are. #Perfectlyme is just the beginning to the endless possibilities in promoting self-love,” stated junior Kadet, Megan Reynolds.

But this campaign isn’t the first promoting body positivity, nor is it the last. In the past year, Barbie has released a whole line of dolls varying in size. Model Ashley Graham has become the first plus-sized model covered on Vogue UK and the first plus-size model for Victoria’s Secret; and multiple companies are releasing ads celebrating all bodies, including Dove and Aerie Real.

In September 2016, Lane Bryant, a clothing company fixated on plus size women, produced an ad campaign protesting body discrimination against all women. It tackles negativity by exposing undesirable conversations on social media as well as running feisty responses from the models to depict “how women shine through.”

Plus size praise is popping up everywhere and leaving its mark. Zach Miko became the first plus-sized male model signed to a major modeling agency. Miko was known for being the only plus-sized male for Target, but sparked an interest in IMG modeling agency.

Miko told buzzfeed.com, “Women of all shapes and sizes are beautiful and confident and sexy,” he said. “The conversation has changed from ‘This is what beautiful is’ to ‘What is beautiful?’ I am humbled to be able to raise that question for the men’s industry.”

Even huge companies in the makeup business, such as Covergirl, are now changing their standard for makeup models. Their models have changed from famous women to Muslim and black women, and there is even a male “Covergirl” now. The addition of James Charles as a “Covergirl” has helped to open the door to the acceptance of men joining the makeup community. Their new campaign, #lashequality, not only promotes their newest line of mascara, but also inclusivity and the fact that all people are equal and accepted just as they choose to be.

Not only is the world stomping out body standards, but our very own Air Academy High School is starting to join the movement.

No Place For Hate member, Hannah Dunn, spoke briefly about the strive to make a more body positive outlook for AAHS students, “I believe everyone should be happy with their appearance; no matter what they look like, they are beautiful, and No Place For Hate acknowledges this. We move to stop all forms of this bias. People have body image issues, and Air Academy High is working toward stopping this targeting.”

According to a study by British researchers, there is a large difference in the size of the “perfect” body and the size of the “average” body. For women, they want a small waist, tummy, and very little to no fat, while they want large busts. For men, they want large shoulders, lots of muscles, and a small waist. But, not all people can look that way. The most surprising part of this study was the fact that we were the people putting out the standards that we despise. People want to be skinny and fit and healthy and appealing to others; we try to make ourselves look good according to society when what we really want is to be accepted. The reason that women wanted larger busts is because they thought that that was what others wanted to see from them, but they were wrong. The men in the study drew the “ideal” woman with larger hips, more tummy chub, and smaller busts than the women had made.

In the society we live in, it is hard to be comfortable in your own skin when criticism comes from so many different places. A major underlying factor for many people is the pressure from their families to look a certain way. There is a balance between wishing for a child to be healthy, and destroying their confidence. Even one too many, “Don’t wear that, it makes you look fat” can destroy someone’s confidence in themselves for the rest of their lives, so parents, and everyone, be careful what you say to people because you have no idea how it could affect someone. The bottom line is that it is important to be comfortable in your own skin and love yourself. People may try to bring you down or squash your self-esteem, but it is important not to let their voices drown out all of the positive ones. Even if you don’t feel like you are perfect, no one is, and everyone feels that way at some point in their life.

We have been told for so long that what beauty is can only fit in one small box, but times are changing, and now it’s a new conversation. Beauty comes in every shape, size, and color. If you want to be a model, go do it. Dress up, take pictures, post on your Instagram, tell a story, be proud of who you are right now because YOU ARE PERFECT.