“Growing up, my lips have always been my biggest insecurity. This is something I was never able to escape. I was always made fun of for not having lips. I would hear the comment 'at least I have lips' all the time and that it would make me feel worse about myself. Once I was introduced to social media and discovered Kylie Jenner, this made me feel worse about the way I looked. I felt that the only way I could be 'pretty' was if I had bigger lips like Kylie. This was a big issue for me when I was in my early teens but as I grew older, I learned to accept my flaws and realized that I don’t need to look like the influencers on social media.” - Nicole F.

“Having a small chest has always made me insecure. I used to think I wasn't pretty enough with a small chest. I would always hear 'oh you're a part of the Itty Bitty Titty Committee that's so cute' but to me I didn't feel cute. The media has always pointed out that a woman's chest is the most desirable part of the body. Seeing this made me feel insecure that I did not look like the woman I would see on tv, social media and in magazines. It's sad that in the media the value of women is directly linked to her desirability.” - Lorena M.

“Four-eyes, Nerd, Dork - are all the jokes I would hear when I was younger when I first got my glasses. Hearing these jokes made me feel insecure about wearing glasses. As soon as I was old enough I switched to wearing contacts so I wouldn’t have to hear anyone make fun of how thick the lenses of my glasses were as my eyesight got worse. Social media only made my insecurity worse. It wasn’t cool to wear glasses because they weren’t in-style. Now I only ever wear my glasses when I am home, I always wear my contact lenses when I go out.” - Jennifer P.

“My chest has always been an insecurity of mine. In middle school there were kids that would make fun of me about the size of my chest. In high school I had to wrap my chest in order to fit into the dance customs the school provided. . My parents never allowed me to use social media until I was 16 and now I understand why. With the way social media displays the ideal women and tells us what the modern day man is attracted to it can be emotionally difficult to completely love the bodies we were given and I feel it has raised numbers in how many women are self deprecating. My insecurity with my breast size is something i've learned to accept as I entered by early twenties. It took a while to feel this way but I realized that all women have them and in all different shapes and sizes, and we all need to understand that no matter what we look like, we define our beauty, not others.” - Ivy O.

“My body and weight is something i’ve been struggling with for as long as I can remember. In school, I always felt insecure about my body because everyone around me was always smaller than me. When I look at myself in the mirror it's hard to look at myself and see that my body is beautiful when the media constantly points out how women shouldn’t be over a size 5. Society has portrayed thin, tall women as the beauty standard my whole life and that negatively affected my confidence throughout my life and continues to be one of my biggest insecurities. Seeing the artist, Lizzo express how she does not care about what people think about her weight and the shape of her body has helped me with my insecurity. I helped me realize that the only opinion that matters about my body is mine and I shouldn’t let anyone influence the way I see myself." - Leslie R.

“My hips are something that has always been pointed out to me and makes me very self conscious. I find it really difficult to love and accept my curves when I am constantly told that I need to slim down because my hips are getting 'too big.' The size of my hips were always a problem growing up. I was never comfortable wearing certain outfits in fear that someone would make fun of the way I looked. Social media never made anything better. All I would see were women with a small waist being praised for being the perfect size of an ideal woman.” - Grecia S.

“For as long as I could remember I was a skinny child, and people would tell me how lucky I was so I thought that that was the way to be. When I started gaining weight in my highschool years, I was told that I should lose weight and that I was getting fat. After research and research, YouTube video after YouTube video on how to lose weight fast, I realized that I started starving my body. I would wake up every morning measuring my waistline, my thighs, sucking in my stomach and looking for bones. I wanted to see my bones, feel my bones and know that there were only bones left visible on my body. Frustration after frustration the only thing that would make me satisfied was my hunger . If my stomach was screaming for food, I'd have completed my day well! The subconscious training of the mind, from tv shows, little kids opinions, magazines, commercials, and other visual or verbal forms of societally considered beauty. The young 15 year old me was just trying to find herself, be happy with herself and absorb the lies of her surroundings.” - Ruth A.

“My face and acne is the most vulnerable part of myself. I have had acne since I was in middle school and it only worsened in high school. I was always afraid to admit to people that I struggled with acne and ashamed for it to be seen. Social media made me feel like I needed to have perfect porcelain skin, which made it very intimidating for me to leave my house without makeup. Especially with something I can't control. It is very annoying to see people look up to influencers with perfect skin and flawless jaws. Acne is something everyone goes through it but at times, people get it worse than others. I’ve learned to accept that I don’t need perfect skin to be socially accepted, the only thing that really matters is that I accept the way I look." - Stephanie H.