Self-love. Loving myself has become an ever increasingly hard task for me with the picture
perfect expectations the online world has on young teenagers. I’m sure that many youth my age
can resonate with me and we should recognize how vulnerable we can be to those harmful and
unrealistic expectations, especially as we are still in our prime years of intellectual growth.
“I am a Queencard. You wanna be the Queencard?” – (G)I-DLE
As an all time K-pop consumer who doom scrolls K-pop content, I often keep up with those pop
culture spaces and idols. It’s a regular occurrence for me to be subjected to the perfectly curated
images and sights that leave no room for mistakes.
K-pop idols’ jobs consist of maintaining their flawless appearance, which may unintentionally
reflect onto younger audiences in a negative way. So how can you prevent yourself from falling
into that trap of comparison?
It’s important to understand that social media doesn’t necessarily have to be the root of the
problem, and that there are preventative measures you can take yourself to shield yourself
against those idealistic pressures. A girl group I have been following since their debut, (G)I-DLE,
has embodied this rebellious stance towards these societal norms and have become role models
along the way for many of their fans, including me! Their songs are produced to embrace natural
beauty, promote self-confidence, and combat against toxicity in the real world.
So these are the tips I have:
– Have support systems offline and don’t glue yourself to the screen all day.
– Create a feed that is beneficiary for yourself.
– Separate the filtered online world’s ideals from the imperfections in real life.
And Lastly, I hope that you guys are all able to consume, but not be consumed by online and
social media content. It’s normal to have insecurities at our age, but we are capable of finding our
own narratives and to not have our lives be dictated by those external influences.
A reminder to you all: you are a star, you are worth the world, and you are a Queencard.
Ending Prompt:
How has social media changed your view on beauty positively or negatively? In what ways can
we come together to collectively work towards an online environment that more so fosters
self-love and confidence?