Body Image: What's The Big Deal?

Body image is a term that is often thrown around at school and among friends but what is it and why should we have a better awareness of it?

Well, body image is “how you perceive, think and feel about your body, but this may have no bearing at all on your actual appearance”.

Many different factors can contribute to shaping the way you see your body.

Everything from the media, to friends and family, all contribute to your body image. If you really think about it, every day we are bombarded with a variety of images and talk about different body shapes and that is essentially how we form an idea of what we should look like. 

Depending on how these external factors affect you, this can ultimately determine whether you have a healthy or unhealthy body image. 

There are two main ways body image can be divided: you either have a healthy or an unhealthy body image.

A healthy body image is “being comfortable in your own skin, being happy with the way you look, and feeling good within yourself”. This is the ultimate goal in terms of body image as it means that you are content with yourself exactly the way you are.

While an unhealthy body image is “thinking your body is bigger or smaller that it is in reality, believing that you aren't perfect on the outside, and thinking that how you look on the outside is your entirety. You are more than just your skin!”.

So, considering what healthy and unhealthy body image is, it is clearly important for everybody to have a positive and healthy image of their body in their mind and to embrace the individual differences that make us unique.

Also, body image is super important in terms of taking care of yourself as having an unhealthy perception of your body can lead to more serious problems such as eating disorders and it also affects your self-esteem.