After a rough breakup, sophomore Melanie Eskew felt like her self-love vanished because she let it depend on her ex-girlfriend.
“I pinpointed the things that I did not like about myself,” she said. “I wasn’t seeing a change in my self confidence as fast as I wanted to.” She explained that it took awhile for her to have genuine self love.

Then, Eskew stopped comparing her body to other girls she saw on social media or in school.

Although, some people are not comfortable with their bodies and do not have the motivation to change.

Sophomore Isabella Scutchfield motivates others to make an adjustment. “If you’re not comfortable with your body push yourself to make the change and make yourself comfortable.”

Encouraging yourself to become more confident is a struggle and takes time, but it’s a positive decision in the long run.

“I’ve had to work up to this point. I hated my body a lot freshman year and the start of this school year, but it became exhausting,” Eskew said. “I learned to start loving myself and I’m still in the process of doing so.”

Changing physical features and finding the motivation to do so can take hard work.

In a survey of 100 students, 42 percent said they feel the need to change their bodies and 45 percent of them are uncomfortable in their bodies.

Teenagers view themselves differently from others which could greatly affect developing mentality in them.

Sophomore Isabella Scutchfield reflects back to when she was learning about her body confidence. “At a point, I wasn’t comfortable with myself and I started eating healthier and working out.” She explained that she was tired of hating on herself so she made a change.

Modern day social media has turned body image into a difficult expectation to youthful minds.

Beloved Instagram models even Facetuning their bodies and faces. This could make young minds think that they need to change themselves as well.

Popular social media influencer James Charles admits to Facetuning his pictures from YouTube videos to tweets. He even did a video titled FACETUNING MY FOLLOWERS’ SELFIES.

Young minds should realize that the size of their body doesn’t define their beauty. The media plants body image standards and unhealthy mechanisms to lose weight in young teenage minds.

According to The Body Image Therapy Center, 50 percent of women use unhealthy mechanisms to lose weight. “It took  really long time for me to get to a point where I could genuinely say that I love myself.” Eskew said.