Ladies (especially girls), You Don’t Need a ‘Glow Up.’

Beauty standards are destroying kids before they become adults.

And are destroying adults as they age.

I used to be obsessed with wanting to glow up when I was younger (a teenager), desperate for the change that would allow me to finally be happy in my own body.

What I didn’t know is that to change for the better, you can’t hate yourself.

You must learn to love yourself to give the proper care, nourishment, rest, and exercise your body needs to be at its best.

Our society has become obsessed with glow-ups, making young people think that they have to glow up. Otherwise, they will never be happy in their skin.

And for those of us who are aging (I’ll be thirty in about a year and a half), glow-ups make us think it’s a crime to age.

Glow-ups make girls think they need to become women right away.

This is honestly so toxic and right down disgusting.

The after of a glow-up always shows a hyper-sexualized young woman.

We’re teaching girls that they need to become young women as fast as possible.

We’re taking away the only time they have to be kids and enjoy life without much care.

I remember I used to be one of these girls, desperate to have my period so I could finally be called a woman, yet little did I know what that would entail.

Every single month, my cycle brings annoying cramps and the messiness of, well, blood. There’s no other way to put it since that’s precisely what happens.

Now that I’m an adult, one of the things I regret most was doing everything I could to grow up as fast as possible.

To a kid, being an adult sounds like so much fun.

And to a certain degree, it is, but as children, we’re completely unaware of all the responsibility that also has to rest on our shoulders in order to be considered an adult.

And this is why I highly dislike glow-ups.

They want girls to forget their childhood and jump straight into sexualized adulthood.

Glow-ups make women think it’s not okay to age.

On the other side of the same coin, glow-ups (for those who are older or getting there) make us feel like aging is a terrible curse.

*Sigh*

It’s as if society wants women to be miserable no matter what stage in life they find themselves in.

As I get older, I won’t lie; I’m getting a little scared of changing and getting wrinkles and a few gray hairs.

I’ve been made to believe that growing older is a terrible experience and a societal death sentence.

Glow-ups make us (women who are exiting our twenties) fear going into the next stage of our lives.

And I hate it.

There’s nothing wrong with getting a few wrinkles and a couple of gray hairs.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with our bodies changing.

There’s nothing wrong with our individual differences, biology, and genetics that make us all different and unique.

Why are we trying so desperately to stay stuck in our twenties (physically speaking)?

I wasn’t even at my best (health-wise) in my early twenties.

Glow-ups ruin our relationship with our changing bodies.

The reality of being human is that nothing ever stays the same, including our bodies.

We can do many things to improve our quality of life, like eating a healthy diet and working out regularly.

But glow-ups make us think that this is all we should focus on.

If we fall off track, that’s it; it’s all over.

Glow-ups make us think we need to look stunning picture-ready all the time.

This is utterly unrealistic.

Women, like men, are human beings who don’t always look stunning.

We get acne, and we gain weight. We have hormones that cause all kinds of symptoms all the darn time. Why do we have to worry so much about simply existing?

This is a very ranty blog but one I thought needs to be shared because, ladies, we’re so much more than our appearance, our highlight reels, and our Instagram photos.

And those of you who are just starting life (yes, those of you still in your teens/early twenties), please don’t focus too much of your energy on trying to look the way the world tells you you should.

Soon after, you’ll find out it was a waste of time and money.

Time and money you would have instead spent on the things that actually fill your soul and heart.

As fun as it is to have those glow-up days where you spend a little bit longer doing your hair and make-up, please do not make it the priority of your day.

Instead, prioritize getting to know yourself, what matters to you, the person you want to be, and the life you want to have.

I promise that focusing on those things will make your life a heck of a lot less stressful and dull.

The truth is looks change, trends change, appearances fade, and what’s left is what’s inside of you, your mind, and your heart.

Make sure that those things are filled to the brim.