What Models Really Look Like

I saw an article the other day that showed what super models “really” look like. And it seems to be that this is becoming a more common thing. I can admit that at first I was a fan of these articles. I mean, finally people were getting to see a little more realistic view of things. But now, honestly, I am growing tired and bored of them. Maybe it’s just me but I have come to a point where I am not shocked that people who look perfect in a magazine don’t actually look that way in real life. Don’t we all know about photo shop by now.

I saw an article the other day that showed what super models “really” look like. And it seems to be that this is becoming a more common thing. I can admit that at first I was a fan of these articles. I mean, finally people were getting to see a little more realistic view of things. But now, honestly, I am growing tired and bored of them. Maybe it’s just me but I have come to a point where I am not shocked that people who look perfect in a magazine don’t actually look that way in real life. Don’t we all know about photo shop by now.

I feel like before I go into my whole spiel that I should point out that we don’t really know if these are real pictures of models. It’s just as easy to photo shop something to look hideous as it is to make it look gorgeous. So how do we know that someone didn’t alter them the other way?

This whole thing hits pretty close to home for me. Something that a lot of people don’t know about me is that I used to suffer from incredibly low self-esteem. I am not a skinny gal but I used to be much bigger than I am now and I had a really hard time with it. I felt fat, ugly, and unattractive and I didn’t think that any guy would ever like my body.

I am not sure where it came from but I feel like a lot of it was a) always having skinny friends and b) seeing all the other skinny people in the world. Most of my friends were the skinny gals who never had to work at being skinny, they just were. So I think somewhere along the line I just assumed that’s what it was like for everyone (including models).

But through the years I learned that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Some gals are just lucky – they can eat what they want and not work out and still maintain a so-called ideal figure. And others (like me) can’t do that. Then there’s models who, as part of their job, have to keep their body a certain way. They do whatever they have to do to get the body they need to because their job requires that of them. That’s really not like any other job out there. With every job, you’re required to maintain something. I mean, if I stopped maintaining this blog, it would stop being a blog.

Do I agree with the excessive photo shopping? Absolutely not. Do I agree with what people do to their bodies? Again, absolutely not. And that’s not what I am saying at all here. Actually that’s not even where I’m trying to go with this post. I am just saying that’s half the battle. I mean what’s going to happen when there is a perfect looking non-photo shopped model? Actually to be totally honest some of these so-called bad pictures of models still look better than I do on my best days.

My self-esteem didn’t get better because people started showing what models really looked like or because I just stopped looking at them altogether. What made it better is realizing that I don’t have to look like a super model to be attractive. And also realizing that I am not willing to go to the extremes that they do to make my body look like that. Sorry but I love burgers, beer, and nachos way too much for that.

Side note: I am also not trying to promote the idea that models starve themselves. I am just saying I would say in a given week I consume more beer, burgers, and nachos than they do.

But the point is, once I stopped spending so much time comparing myself to models (and other women in general) I realized that I am pretty darn lovely just the way I am. I think I just figured out that I can spend my life comparing myself to everyone else or I can love myself and go out and live my life.

The fact is -- everyone is different. Looks. Brains. Everything. We are different. And that’s OK. It’s also OK to be a little envious but it’s not OK to feel less than what you are because of someone’s differences. To me, that’s the root of the problem – the comparing.

We need to stop focusing so much on what everyone else is doing and focus on ourselves. Because when you truly love yourself the other people don’t matter as much. Let a super model be a super model. And let you be you. End of story.