7 Minutes of Scrolling

And something I want to hear your thoughts on....

Here are screenshots from about 7 minutes’ worth of scrolling through IG Reels on my personal account, followed by some questions and thoughts I have for you.

In case your legs have texture.

In case you want to prevent signs of life without needles.

In case you forgot Tyra Bank’s thin body from the 90’s.

In case you need an example of ideal beauty at age 53.

In case you didn’t know the current beauty standard.

In case your hair isn’t sleek.

In case your hair hasn’t been lasered off yet.

In case your neck isn’t thin.

In case your face isn’t white & bright.

Also, did you hear?

According to new CDC data released on Monday, “nearly 3 in 5 (57%) U.S. teen girls felt persistently sad or hopeless in 2021—double that of boys, representing a nearly 60% increase and the highest level reported over the past decade”.

In addition, this report found that “nearly 1 in 3 (30%) [teen girls] seriously considered attempting suicide—up nearly 60% from a decade ago.”

Data collected from 2011 to 2021 cycles of the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), a school-based survey conducted biennially by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

So…

….Why aren’t we talking about this?

Why is this persistent pressure to change our bodies into the current standard of beauty so normalized?

Do we think that the apparent mass acceptance of social media addiction and sexist beauty standards could have some connection to the rates of suicide plans and clinical depression we’re seeing in our youth?

I would truly love to hear your thoughts on this - there is no wrong answer!

Remember, there is no judgement coming from me with these questions! I, too, struggle with this cultural phenomenon. And no, I don’t think the solution is to burn our makeup, bras, and plastic surgery centers.

I think we (millennial women navigating adulthood, wellness, self-awareness, etc.) simply need to talk about this more — “this” being the infinite to-do list we give ourselves and fellow women with the goal of maintaining (or improving) our appearance. Why do we get so hush-hush about it? Who does that serve?

(Certainly not the 1 in 3 teenage girls who seriously considered suicide in 2021)

Until next time, here’s a bit of Wendell Berry’s work to help dissolve some of the stress that this newsletter may have caused you:

“When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.
I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”

— Wendell Berry, 1968

Would you like to share more? Please comment below (especially if you answered “other” in the polls - I want to hear your take!) and remember that the comments can be anonymous!