"Beauty, to me, is about being comfortable in your own skin. That, or kick ass red lipstick."

Not sure if you caught it, but the other day, BBC3 aired 'Cherry's Body Dilemmas', a programme that cut right to the heart of womankinds biggest worry. One that is concieved through relentless peer pressure in our teens, and stays with us for much of our adult lives, sometimes blooming into an obsession. I'm talking about the way we look. At a guess, I would say 99% of us would change something about ourselves. Be it longer legs, smaller boobs, more Jolie-esque lips. It's always something. This got me thinking. And the more I thought, seven words kept ricocheting around my head: what. the. hell. is. wrong. with. us? I mean, what exactly are we aspiring to be here? Is it me, or does the world's perception of what it is to be beautiful change almost seasonally? Are we supposed to be thin or curvy? Girl next door or sex kitten? But I think, if you unwrap all the mixed messages, all the fad diets, all the impossible ideals, there is a more poigniant question that needs answering. Why are we trying? Sure, if I'm honest with myself there is an entire list of things I would change. Less cellulite, bigger eyes, longer eyelashes, whiter teeth. But I can't have those things. Well, to be really exact I can't have those things without the aid of painful and expensive surgery. So why do I care? Far too many women are throwing every iota of attention towards what they don't have, and ignoring what they do. I know, it's easier said than done, but we need to stop viewing other women as either our competition or our aim. We need to learn to separate, to think 'OK, that's what they look like. This is what I look like, we're different, and that's fine.'
Because when you think about it, beauty is completely subjective. There's a whole world of types and variations our there. One person's heaven is another's hell no. Sometimes it seems like all the constant focus on body image is a radio that we can't turn off, that blares in the back of our thoughts all the time. But I hope we can learn to make this one thought louder than all the bullshit: there will always, always be somebody that thinks you're a ten.