There’s a whole range of messaging we receive these days about our bodies, from the ever-present advertisements featuring Photoshopped “ideals” of what we’re “supposed” to look like, to the many, many bloggers and companies who, thankfully, champion body acceptance and positivity. But constantly blocking out insidious images and messages acting to undermine our confidence can be exhausting. Actress Rowan Blanchard shared the best advice with Coveteur recently about her ongoing journey with mental health and body image. Her words are wise and beyond necessary: She emphasizes that it’s not about being perfect or feeling perfect but just checking in with yourself and staying grounded in a world gone body-image crazy.
“I feel like a lot of how we think about health is with goals, whether that’s to lose weight, or to look…what’s marketed as ‘feminine’ or what’s marketed as ‘fit’. I try to think of it as what’s being healthy and what’s not being healthy,” she said, adding that although she’s aware of making healthy food choices, “I’m never over-conscious about it because I’m pretty young.”
In addition to smart guidelines like turning her phone off before bed, Blanchard’s advice to young women—though any age could benefit from it!—is pretty honest: “I feel that pressure to look a certain way, so I don’t feel totally exempt from this or like I have this figured out…I grew up with a lot of magazines that were marketed towards teens that had headlines about how you can lose weight, or how you can look ‘fit,’ or how you can get a ‘bikini body,’” she said. “Those types of headlines inherently breed that sort of self-loathing young women already have. Specific advice I give myself whenever I feel very insecure, or insecure about my body, or how I look in a dress—all of these things—I try to tell myself that a lot of it is in my head. This is a hard one, because I’m still a teenager who’s insecure every day.”
She also adds that if you find yourself struggling with a hangup, you’re not alone. As Blanchard said, “No matter how I’m feeling, there is another person in the world that feels exactly how I feel in the moment. I think we often forget that we’re a part of such a grander thing.”
Um, preach, Rowan Blanchard. And I’m not even a teenager.
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