“I hope I’m helping women to embrace their own bodies…to understand they don’t have to be small to succeed,” says gorgeous, plus-size model Robyn Lawley.

Lawley’s goal helps explain the issue of body image today. Women should feel proud of what they have and realize that every other person in the world has insecurities.

Body image today is so overrated in the media that it negatively affects any woman. Women should stop caring so much about their appearance because it is what is hurting their self-confidence.

Women must not compare themselves to the appearance of other women and say, “I must look like that” because that is the path to low self-esteem.

The main reason girls in this era are not confident is because they do not feel attractive or “pretty” enough. They think they must obtain the perfect appearance in order to look like the fashion models and actresses they see in magazines and on television.

However, other things in life are more important. Being stick-thin is not going to make a difference in a woman’s life. It will not make a woman happier or change life for the better.

What is extremely horrifying is the way the web and media glorify eating disorders and thinness. Some girls tend to delve into an unhealthy lifestyle by developing an eating disorder.

Specifically, among teenaged girls, anorexia is the third most common illness after bulimia and binge eating disorder. Both anorexia and bulimia nervosa are terrifying illnesses that affect anyone’s life in negative ways. It affects anyone, male and female, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

The good news is there’s still hope.

Some influential figures in the media, such as plus-size model Robyn Lawley, are trying to send a positive message to every woman who wants to feel beautiful inside and out.

American plus-size model Kate Dillon proves that message, “I firmly believe that what makes you sexy and beautiful is not the size of your body or the color lipstick you have on. What really makes you sexy is what you project, your confidence and your self-awareness, having a great sense of humor and being really smart”

The media should stop showing so many images of women that girls, in society, today perceive as “perfection.” Airbrushing pictures of celebrities and fashion models on magazine covers is also not fair because first, the images are not real, and secondly it is not ethical to make a profit from these fake images.

Women should not to compare their appearance to other women or feel negative about the way they look. Being seemingly “perfect” or “sexy and skinny” is not going to help them succeed in the real world because it is all absolute nonsense.