Scrolling through social media nowadays can feel somewhat disheartening. “Perfect” bodies in ads, bikini pictures of people with “perfect” shapes living “perfect” lives, and very few pics of love handles, stretch marks, or laughter wrinkles – the things that make us human.
Unsurprisingly, such a newsfeed can make other people feel like they have to follow suit – only post polished or edited pictures of themselves, hitting the perfect pose, looking flawless. And the sad reality is that many people do.
A study from 2021 found that an astonishing 90% of young women use a filter or edit their pictures before posting. Why do they do that, you might wonder? Well, according to the study, mostly to even out their skin tone, reshape their jaw or nose, shave off weight, brighten or bronze their skin, or whiten their teeth.
To make matters worse, young women tend to compare themselves to the often unrealistic beauty standards they see online. Talking about the findings, the researcher behind the paper, Professor Rosalind Gill, from City St George's, University of London (formerly City, University of London), noted that young people reported feeling overwhelmed by images that are “too perfect.”
While many people, especially young women, feel the need to edit their pictures before uploading them, a seemingly increasing number of strong and beautiful females don’t. The women on this list, as well as numerous other content creators, don’t fear showing their perfectly imperfect bodies, and do that with pride.
We spoke with one of the content creators among them, TikToker Sara Puhto, whose video of “edited vs real” went viral on TikTok last year. She was kind enough to tell us more about her story and the message she wants to share on social media.
“I used to be a fitness content creator back in 2016 and realised that I was posing, flexing, and sucking in all the content that I would post with my body. I was sharing my workouts and ‘what I eat in a day’ videos and realised that I was comparing myself to other content creators who were also posting similar content.
“I would compare my body to theirs and assume that they looked flexed all the time, even when they were relaxing their bodies. That’s when I decided to share my relaxed body next to my posed, flexed and sucked-in body to show the ‘reality’ behind my Instagram posts. It felt really rewarding and helpful to not only me but to my audience, so I kept posting content similar to that since 2016-2017 and haven’t stopped since.”
Puhto continued to share that after a while, she realized that she had an eating disorder and a problematic disordered relationship with working out, and that’s when she started her journey toward healing.
“I now have a healthy relationship towards food and working out and have found a balance that is sustainable for me,” she told Bored Panda. “I think posting my body acceptance and body neutral content was almost like having a public diary of my healing process and sharing my inner thoughts and feelings while recovering publicly. Which I don’t regret one bit, as it’s so beautiful to know that others have healed and started their own healing journeys through the help of my content, which means the world to me.”
According to Puhto, social media posts showing women embracing their bodies of all shapes and sizes play an incredibly important role. “They challenge the narrow beauty standards we’ve been fed for so long and make space for real, diverse bodies to be seen, accepted, and celebrated.
“When we share posts that highlight stretch marks, scars, soft bellies, or aging skin or anything else, we’re saying: ‘This is normal. This is worthy.’ For me, it’s about visibility, representation, and healing,” the content creator said. “When someone sees a body like theirs celebrated instead of hidden, it can shift how they see themselves. That kind of empowerment is powerful and necessary. Social media has the reach to normalise what the world once told us to cover up.”
Professor in the Department of Allied Health Sciences at the University of Connecticut, Dr. Sherry Pagoto, seconded the idea that it’s really important to shed light on different body types on social media. In a recent interview with Bored Panda, the expert noted that there is quite a bit of stigma about certain body types, and this can fuel body image issues and even eating disorders.
“Our society values a certain beauty ideal and it is unachievable for most people,” she said. “Body types that don’t resemble those ideals tend to be stigmatized. Thinness is a body ideal put forth for women, tallness is a body ideal put forth for men. Not having a body that is consistent with those ideals can really have a crushing effect on self-esteem.”
In addition to the damage on one’s self-esteem, unattainable beauty standards can also have a negative effect on people’s health. Take thinness, for instance, the ideal that tends to be put forth for women – it’s not uncommon for it to be advertised as the look of a healthy person. Though in reality, the size of the body might have nothing to do with its health, and trying to become “thin” might even ruin one’s health.
Dr. Pagoto emphasized that the level of how healthy someone’s body is may or may not have anything to do with its size. “Thin people have chronic disease and many overweight people have perfect blood pressure, low cholesterol, and a high level of physical fitness. We can’t really tell how healthy someone is with certainty just by their body size or type.
“From a mental health perspective, it is probably healthier to focus on how healthy your body is than how it looks. Being hyper-fixated on physical appearance can actually lead to a number of unhealthy behaviors like extreme dieting, tanning, purging, and abusing prescription drugs,” the expert added.
Talking about ways to deal with unattainable beauty standards and feel more comfortable in your own skin, Dr. Pagoto suggested shifting your focus from how your body looks to what your body can do.
“For example, have you always been a pretty fast runner? Try running again. Have you always been good at hitting a softball? Join a team. Leveraging your body’s strengths and building on them produces self-confidence and makes us feel really good. This shift in focus from form to function gives you an opportunity to deepen your relationship with your body and explore its hidden abilities.”
Asked about what advice she would give to people who want to feel more comfortable in their own skin, Sara Puhto suggested starting by being gentle with yourself. “We’ve all been taught to pick ourselves apart, so unlearning that takes time, but it’s possible to build,” she noted.
“Unfollow anyone who makes you feel ‘less than,’ and fill your social media feed with bodies that look like yours, move like yours, and live fully without shame. Wear the outfit. Take the photos, you’ll want to look back on them when you’re older. Take time to learn to say kind things to yourself, even if it feels weird at first. Confidence doesn’t show up overnight, it’s built through tiny acts of self-kindness. And remember: your body is not the problem. The world’s narrow definition of beauty is.”