An original speech, written by our student Sashrika Prasad.

Sashrika is 13 years old, a young writer from Gurugram. The beautiful colors, flowers, and sunsets encourage her to write about deep emotions and feelings. We are proud to have her as a student of the Teen Talk Program, an Online Personality Development Program using Applied Storytelling & Applied Theatre tools under the mentorship of Trainer Khusshbo Chokhaani. We congratulate Sashrika for this exemplary true self-expression.

Body Shaming In Teenagers !!!

“Hey Miss Potbelly, Four-eyed boy, skinny girl, lanky boy, Mr. Fatso.” Has any one of you ever encountered such titles or tags during your teenage life for yourself or anyone around you?

Hello everyone, I am Sashrika, a twelve-year-old teen. And when I was in my early preteen period my classmates used to tell me that my teeth look like bottle openers. This used to leave me embarrassed. I started disliking myself. Fortunately, I had a strong support system at home which helped me to handle it maturely. But the problem doesn’t stop there. Today body- shaming is one of the biggest challenges for today’s generation. Society has created unhealthy beauty standards for others, but they ridicule those same standards when they are not at par. Today’s teen is under the constant pressure of looking good in front of others. Instead of focusing on eating good nutrition, they are talking about how they can resort to the ketogenic diet or paleo diet to fit into that perfect 3 piece suit or hot pants. This constant rut of body image forces a teenager to either change their true self and try to become someone else. In due course they lose their self-esteem, confidence, and most importantly their true self.

In this whole scenario, the culprit and the victim are both teenagers. Teens get easily judged in places like schools, building societies, colleges, public places, etc. Teenagers are judged because at age 12 they didn’t have a smaller waist, less body hair, and thinner thighs. At 16 they are bullied for not having a smaller waist, fuller hips, or a smaller nose. It’s not about age but teens are bullied based on anything. They are bullied for not being perfect. They lose their self-esteem. For example- My friend is heavy but whenever she looks at slim people around, her first sentence is “I wish I had a body like her”. The same thoughts come to my slim friends –“ I wish I wasn’t this lanky. A little flesh would have been good”. Why do we need to change ourselves? Why are teenagers focussing on their body size chart more than their skills growth chart? Everybody is unique and so is their body structure.

Bullying because of body imperfections is rising rapidly. I feel one of the core reasons teenagers bully their fellow teens is jealousy. Jealousy is that poison that enters our mind through simple comparisons and later on become a disease. Most teens feel insecure because they know the other person is better than them and they feel putting the other person down is the only way to rise above.

Why do we need to compare ourselves with others? Why can’t we compare our own current self with our old self? Why can’t we measure our progress from past to present?

Body shaming in teens is creating lucrative counseling jobs where we find Mental Health Counsellors in every well-to-do school and university. It’s good to have mental health counselors but why not take efforts to eliminate the disease from its roots? Today’s teen is suffering from trauma, depression, self-harm, low self-esteem, or borderline personality disorders. In extreme cases it even causes suicide. Who likes to read news of a young vibrant progressive teen committing suicide because she was bullied badly for her body structure? I remember the news of a 22-year-old aspiring fashion designer committing suicide in east Delhi. She indicated in her suicide note that she was a victim of body shaming and she couldn’t take the pressure anymore.

Who is responsible for the death of this 22-year-old? Was it society who judged her at all times? Was it herself who may be compared herself with others constantly in her head? Whomever it was the root causes of body shaming are unnecessary comparisons, utopian judgments, and negative feelings like jealousy and insecurities.

Today let us vow that we will not feel inadequate when we find someone better than us. In fact, we will take that extra mile to either reach there with our efforts or tell ourselves that maybe that is not for us. Next time you spot a heavy or lanky teen appreciate them for their good qualities with statements like “Hey, I loved your hairstyle” or “ Hey, you create beautiful artwork”. Take a vow that you won’t judge them. Judging anyone is only creating belittling yourself. If you are a school authority or building society, create awareness programs through expert counsellors on raising self-esteem, self-confidence, and a robust personality who believes in their potential. With that note, I would urge all my fellow teenage friends to bring their complete attention and focus on nurturing and upgrading their skill sets instead of comparing themselves with others and judging others. These few steps will help us to replace demotivating statements like “hey fatso” with empowering statements like “hey gorgeous”. Which one you would like to choose?

Leave your valuable comments for our young orators & writers.