February’s popularity resembles Valentine’s hearts and gifts, showing your love for those important to you. However, this month adds a moment of expressing love and a greater opportunity to discover self-value and acceptance.
Did you know that the average American feels insecure about themselves five times a day? To most, sadly, this is not a ground-shaking revelation, it’s an obvious reality of life. For example, what’s the first thing you notice when crossing eyes with another or meeting a new person? Nine times out of ten, it’s how they look.
Nowadays, studies have shown that the impact of self-insecurity has grown towards adolescence. The impact of social media, cyberbullying, bullying, and teasing on body image causes excessive amounts of people to grow different kinds of insecurities about their bodies. These insecurities can quickly grow people into diagnoses that truly hurt their way of viewing themselves.
Currently, multiple issues quickly build others into insecurities, studies show that most of these bullying events cause eating disorders and personal body dissatisfaction and give kids the thought that “something is wrong with their body.”
After that, the downward spiral continues; the more a person is online, the more people will begin to nitpick aspects of themselves. “When having social media and staring at models or people that [are found attractive], you [start] looking at yourself and just begin to wish you [had their physical traits] and [become hypercritical] on everything you don’t like about yourself; that can take a mental toll on you,” said junior Angelika Campos.
However, Pembroke Pines Charter High School (PPCHS) provides countless services that allow other students to have a moment between themselves and others to discuss their mental challenges or concerns. PPCHS offers guidance counselors who allow students to have one-on-one conversations with them about these psychological concerns.
“At PPCHS, students have access to the student assistant program, staff team, HIP club, and guidance counselors to have [one-on-one] conversations [on their insecurities],” says Mr Bayer, the principal of PPCHS. The guidance office already offers many ways to discuss your mindset and improve your insecurities.
These different opportunities in school also come with out-of-school; for example, there are options for practicing self-care, avoiding negative self-talk, and talking to someone when struggling with negative body image. A positive body image helps create a strong sensation of self-worth and confidence and improves mental health and well-being.
What does having a positive outlook on yourself even look like? It occasionally differs, sometimes, it’s avoiding constantly scrolling through social media and inevitably comparing yourself to others or maybe even working out to become more fit or in shape. Either way, on every PPCHS student’s Canvas page, there is a course called PPCHS School Counseling 9-12. This is our school’s way of directly connecting with students struggling with these insecurities.
We all have our differences which make us all unique human beings; It would be a blockage around originality and dissimilarities if everyone looked the same. That is why self-love is so important; each person holds a distinctive characteristic that makes them stand out and allows them to shine in their own light.
