Spending too much time on social media and looking at pictures of friends, celebrities, athletes, and other public figures can often make men and women overthink their body image. Kylie Jenner is a very popular figure on social media and is known for her larger lips. This trend sparked young girls as well as women to participate in the #KylieJennerLipChallenge on Instagram and YouTube. These showed young girls and women sucking on a shot class to increase the size of their lips to the point where blood vessels would pop. There are many instances where both men and women harm their bodies in order to “fit in” with society’s outlook on proper body image.

Recently, society has been putting a spotlight on other body types that aren’t just the tiny waist and large muscles. 

Covers of magazines usually show the fittest and prettiest people, but recently on the cover of a running magazine, we saw something different. Nadia Aboulhosn is considered to be a plus size model and was recently spotted on the front cover of the April 2016 issue of Women’s Running. In the past, the covers of this magazine have shown other plus size models. In an interview with BuzzFeed, Aboulhosn said she doesn’t like to call herself a plus size model because “she believes it creates a binary where one type of body is considered ‘normal’ or ‘standard’.”

Barbie has recently created a diverse selection of Barbie dolls that include different body types. By creating these more realistic dolls, younger girls playing with these dolls will realize that the skinny hourglass figure isn’t the only body type that is accepted by society.

Young teens aren’t the only group that struggle with body image, but grown men and women as well. Our entertainment industry focuses so much on celebrities who are tall, have clear skin and skinny waists. Putting the spotlight on what society is calling ‘fit and pretty’ is telling people with other body types that anyone who is bigger is not considered normal. In order to move away from body shaming, society needs to stop labeling.

Being attractive should not be classified by size. In order to move apart from labeling, society needs to start accepting all body types.