♡Boobs♡

Sorry for the delayed post but I've been fairly busy:

♡ Finishing a major final assignment for uni
♡ Picking up extra shifts for work
♡ Working at an internship I was recently offered
♡ Procrastinating from studying A LOT

I have my final exam next week and after that I will be able to post a LOT more, yay! All that aside, I'm back and there's something that I wrote a little while ago that I wanted to share with you guys! It's something that I believe strongly about too.

Boobs. Breasts. Tits. Mammaries – many women have them, whatever you like to call them and there is an everlasting debate over them, the debate over natural vs. unnatural.

Personally when I think of plastic surgery and breast enhancements I just think “You go for it gurl! As long as it is your own decision, you’re not being pressured into it and it’s not to make anyone else happy but yourself… Heck! If it’s to make someone else happy that’s ok too, as long as you’re not being persuaded by someone else and it is still your own decision at the end of the day!”

I know many people disagree with this opinion, one of them being my mum, but just hear me out for a second. A few weeks ago my mum and I were watching Big Brother (don’t judge me, I’m a people watcher, I find them interesting) and one of the female intruders once had an operation to have her boobs enlarged a couple of sizes. When the contestants were discussing it my mum said, “Hang on, is she meant to be the smart one?”

‘Yeah, she’s the lawyer,” I replied.

“Well she’s not very smart if she did that then!”

I paused for a second after hearing this. Did my mother, the strong feminist, hardworking, intelligent, kind, compassionate and beautiful woman just say that?

“Mum, just because she got a boob job doesn’t mean she isn’t smart.”

I was shocked to hear that come from her mouth, one of my earliest memories was her teaching me about feminism and gender equality at the tender age of four.

“She’s simply morphing into the unrealistic standards of women’s bodies that society and men have. She’s feeding the problem!”

I mulled her words over for a bit and realised that we both have grown up in completely different eras of feminism. My mother was a young woman in the 70s, when many women said “Screw you!” to the patriarchy and refused to conform to the norm as they did not shave and burnt their bras. This was in comparison to me, who as a feminist and as a human being believes that women should be able to do whatever they want as long as they are not hurting themselves or anyone else. I believe that this new wave of feminists mainly hold the idea that women can do what they want when they want. There are already enough people in the world policing our bodies, us as women don’t need to be doing it as well. We need to stick together and be supportive of one another, whatever our decisions may be, even if we don’t agree with them.

The world is changing and our views need to change along with it. Although I understand what my mum meant and where she was coming from, I didn’t agree with it. Our discussion just showed our differences in regards to feminism. People are already not accepting enough of others as it is, we should not be adding to the problem.

No matter what shape or size we are or how we identify ourselves, no matter what our skin colour is or no matter what our appearance may be, we all deserve to be treated as equals, fake boobs or no fake boobs.

I am interested in what you think on this topic too guys! Do you disagree/agree? Why or why not?

Next post we will be back with regular programming. I have a few posts in the works too for you guys to look forward to such as a Mac lipstick review, a post about slut shaming, a review for a bracelet from Etsy and a post on why I chose to go Vegan, just to name a few.

I hope you're all well!

♡Love Yourself♡

So, as I'm sure many of you have already seen through tumblr or through news headlines Dove have released a new video where an FBI-trained forensic artist, Gil Zamora, created sketches of seven women who were hidden behind a curtain. He used their self-descriptions as the basis of his drawings. Prior to the session with Zamora, each of the women were also asked to spend some time with a stranger – without being told why. Zamora then also drafted sketches from the stranger’s depictions of the women.

As I watched this I tried to imagine myself explaining how I would look to someone and I knew instantly that it would probably be not very flattering. I am sure that many women, heck, many people in the world can agree.

The reality is that most of us can’t see our own beauty like the people around us can and we’re constantly underestimating not only our looks but our abilities. In fact, only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful.

To me that is absolutely shocking.

Personally I have struggled with my own appearance in the past which didn't result in the best outcomes but that has led to my appreciation and love for the human body. Although not every day I am in love with what I see I try to concentrate on my dreams, hopes, things I have achieved and things that I want to accomplish.

No matter what you think, you are beautiful.

Just think of the amazing things that you can do!

This video will change the way that you think and feel about your own beauty so please take a look if you haven't already:

I found this video so upsetting, to me every woman in the world is gorgeous, no matter their appearance and the women in this video were beautiful.

Yes, it is ok to care about how you look but life is too short to worry about it when there is so much in the world to experience.

I know that self love is a lot more complicated than that, I know that me telling you this won't necessarily change what you think but it's something important that I feel needs to be said and is something that people need to hear more often.

I also have a couple of tips that will hopefully help you in loving yourself just that bit more, as  cheesy as they may seem:

1. Fall in love with yourself. Think about what makes you, you. Just like a flower that needs watering to grow, learn to nurture yourself in every way. Love yourself for all the good that you see and accept your flaws and the fact that you are imperfect. 

2. Eliminate Self Criticism. If you find that you often judge yourself, make an effort to stop the self criticism.

3. Be Kind And Positive. When you start to think kindly and positively about yourself, the love you have for yourself just grows.

4. Acknowledge Your Effort. It is not always about winning or coming up tops in everything that you do. Many times, it is the effort that counts! Acknowledge that you have done your best.

5. Let Go Of Worry. Loving yourself requires you to let go of your worry. It is a horrible way to live a life filled with constant worrying. I can attest to that! Worry does not help in any way. Instead of worrying, spend time thinking about what you can do to help in the situation. 

I've also had a couple of people ask me about high school in relation to their self esteem and I have this to say; since leaving high school my self respect and my appreciation of myself has doubled. I fully became myself as I stopped worrying about what judgmental people thought around me. If I could say anything to my high school self it would be do what makes you happy and don't care what others think about you.

I know that to some of you this post may not seem like much but I hope that it has helped, even in the slightest.

xx