I’m that friend who says that you look good even when you don’t.
But you know what? I’m also that friend who tells you that you have lettuce in your teeth or toilet paper dragging under your shoe. If I can help it, I’m never going to let other people embarrass my friends. I’m always loyal to those I love.
But when it comes to telling my friends that they don’t look good, I’ll never share my opinion.
Since when is telling your friend they don’t look good helpful? I And who says that my judgments of how you look should force you to change yourself? My brain tells me plenty of mean things about my body, and I hate it, so why should I share what I think about your body? I’d rather be a kind person and build my friends up instead of tearing them down. Anytime you love someone, they should automatically become beautiful, and that’s what really matters.
I love my friends just as they are.
Even with messy hair, oily faces, tubes in their noses, poo bags on their bellies, wheelchairs, wigs, hair on their faces or armpits, big bellies, thin bellies, big booties, or little booties. I love my friends, period, so I want them to feel at peace with the world and with themselves. And likewise, I want my friends to feel like they can genuinely be who they are around me.
If a friend had a drunken night on the town and got vomit and booze all over themselves, I’d take them in, and clean them up. And sure, I’d tell them that they aren’t looking so hot, but only in a loving, “Let’s laugh with each other” kind of way.
We all have bad body image days, and I want to respect that.
We all look in the mirror and criticize our flaws for way longer than we want to admit. And we tell ourselves all the time that we look bad.
Now more than ever, we need to come together and support each other.
Being stuck with myself, where I can criticize everything about my body, has been hard, so I imagine that it’s equally hard for others. So instead of telling your friends that they “don’t look good,” reach out and tell them what they mean to you instead. After all, our friends are human and beautiful, even on their messy hair days.
Featured Photo by Baylee Gramling on Unsplash.
