My niece is a such a beautiful girl that she was invited to work as a fashion model. Even so, she could not escape from the pressure on thinness.
I remember the scene at the pool. She was teaching me how to seat at the border with the bath outlet (Brazilian “canga), taking it off while sliding into the water in a way that nobody would see her cellulite! After some time, she showed me the art of doing the same thing while exiting the water!
Such a beautiful adolescent, already suffering with her body. Instead of living it in its natural functions, relating to the body as an object of scrutiny.
Brazilian culture praises exposing the body in every occasion as a way of being in fashion. Many people do not feel like it but think there is no choice.
Many adolescents are not ready for the effects of their exposition, the gazes and commentaries.
One of the ways of helping them is to give them time and space to learn how to live in an adult body and to defend themselves from the pressure to conform.
Nature has created such an infinity of forms, there is no such a thing as a unique model and we are not obliged to put ourselves in the showcase all the time.
My body is my own!