When was the last time you felt comfortable in your skin?

When was the last time you felt comfortable in your skin?

You know, I keep coming back to the subject of confidence, body image and self-esteem because I genuinely think it’s an important issue that needs to be covered. While looking at  a post published by one of my favourite blogs, The College Prepster, I found the link to a new video campaign promoting confidence. The key word of this campaign is: Comfortable.

In the video they ask 50 people one simple question: If you could change one thing about your body, what would it be? The people, both male and female, responded with the thing they would like to change about their body, might it be for finally passing by unnoticed (big ears= nicknames such as Dumbo), or to model themselves on a type of beauty standard created by society (desire of having bigger eyes= feeling accepted by society.)

But when asking children the same question, they give completely different answers. They’d like a mermaid tail, a shark mouth, pointy ears or cheetah legs, but they never think about changing one of their body parts because they feel uncomfortable with it. When did we lose that confidence, happiness and contentment of being just and entirely our own person?

The media, society, the community we grow in, instills in us an idea, or better, an ideal image of the perfect body that is almost always impossible to even try to compare to. Girls are supposed to look like Victoria’s Secret angels, guys like Abercrombie gods . Why can’t we just be happy with the way we look? I agree with the idea of wanting to lose weight if you’re a bit overweight for health reasons and to feel better about yourself, but what about those crazy wishes we have of wanting to be taller, have bigger lips, longer legs, bigger eyes, thinner or thicker hair? Beauty is subjective and it cannot be made objective by some people who photoshop pictures to make a perfectly beautiful woman or man look even skinnier than he/she already is.

Inspired by this video, I decided to ask my family and friends the same question: If you could change one thing about your body, what would it be? These were some of their answers:

Rose, 54- “I don’t really care about it anymore, but if I had to answer I would probably say my stomach.”

Vanessa, 14- “I would change my forehead, I think it’s too short and I would like it bigger, because I think that it makes me look like I’m always mad.”

Paola, 49- “I’d change my droopy eyelids..”

Jessica, 22- “I’d like to change my chin, because some people tell me that it looks like a butt. Other than that I know I’m not perfect, but I wouldn’t change anything else about my body. Only my chin that’s always made fun of and people make bad jokes about it.”

Deidra, 22- “If I could change one thing it would be my skin. I’ve always had acne especially in high school, so if I could wake up one day and not be oily I’d be the happiest person ever. And I wish I had an ass, but I don’t think you’ll want that on your blog.”

Robin, 24- “I’d say I would make it so my hair would be fuller for a longer time. Throughout the past year or so, I’ve noticed it thinning a little and I’d like for it to never go bald” he laughs.

Elena, 22, and Bernard, mid twenties, would change their teeth if they could. Every one of us seems to want to change something. From the early teens to mid-fifties there is that idea that we could always be a better version of ourselves and if that change actually happened that we could finally find that happiness and feeling of completeness that we had been looking for.

But does that feeling really arrive with the conquest of our desire?