Liz Schmidt Wisconsin

Discrimination against Body Types

Body image is a problem in our society- fix it.

Dear the next president, 

In today's society, body image is a huge problem. As a teenage girl who goes to public school, I know just how big the problem is. Now I've never been overweight or underweight... in fact, I engage in a lot of activities to keep a toned, healthy body, but that doesn't mean I don't see/hear the way people look/talk about people who are. It's honestly pretty inconceivable how often it happens. People our age do it subconsciously. We've been told all our lives what we are supposed to look like, again, back to society's set standards. We've been told what we need to look like in order to get attention, friends even. As I've matured and gotten older I've realized that you don't need to meet those standards in any way, but a lot of people don't. It's always a good thing to be healthy, for yourself of course, but it's not a bad thing if you have more curves, acne, big nose, etc. It's how your body is built and I feel like more people need to wake up and realize they aren't outsiders. They aren't any different, in any way, and they want to be a part of something, a society, just as much as they do. Lizzie Velasquez was called the 'ugliest woman in the world'. She found a you tube video watching herself being called the ugliest woman in the world. She scrolled through the thousands of comments looking for someone to stand up for her, but didn't find a single one. Lizzie's life was changed after that, and didn't think the same about herself. I bring this up to you because I think you can get it through people's heads since you are an important figure in this world. People look up to you, and listen to what you have to say. I hope you realize what I did and help our society become more equal, less diverse, and more together and have a sense of community. I believe you can do this, and the amount of people it would help is unbelievable. 

Thank you. 

Liz Schmidt