If someone asked you to name one thing you could change about your body, what would your answer be? Chances are you wouldn’t need much time to respond. We delegate a whole lot of energy towards scrutinizing our flaws, so your answer may come easier than most.
What would kids say if you asked them the same question?
In a recently released video, named “Comfortable,” filmmakers asked this one question to 50 people, kids and adults alike. Adults quickly retorted with responses like “Only one?!” while the kids had to think a little longer to let their imaginations run wild. The film was created by the non-profit Jubilee Project in efforts to help people feel confident in their own skin.
Grown women and men would change things like their big forehead, or “stretch marks after having a baby.”
Children, after a few minutes of hmmm-ing and shrugging their shoulders came up with suggestions like “you know, have a mermaid tail.”
Other children responded with wings, shark mouth, teleportation, and extra pointy ears.
One man said he’d change his big ears.
Where is the turning point when we stop loving our bodies? When do we start seeing pointy ears and big ears differently? When do we start seeing ourselves as a collection of flaws and microscopic imperfections rather than the beautiful vessel that lets us do amazing things?
When will we start responding as this young girl in the video did:
“I like my body, actually.”
How can we go so quickly from thinking the only thing that would make our body better is to have “cheetah legs” so we can run faster, as one boy in the video responded, to believing that in order to be comfortable in our own skin, we need to slightly correct the shape of our foot to walk straighter? (Yes, this was a real request from an adult woman in the video.)
To me, the winner of this question is the young girl who says:
“I don’t think there’s anything to change. I like my body!”
When was the last time you felt comfortable in your own skin?
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Flat Stomach, Flabby Arms, Who Cares?! You Are More Than Your Body