Ballerinas, Nutella, and Belly Flops

My school is one of those places where if you walk through the cafeteria carrying, say, a grilled reuben sandwich, some girl will stop you and say, "Animals are gross! They make you fat!"

It makes me sad--not because this actually happened to me a few weeks back (It did.) but because a lot of the younger generation these days believe that your figure needs to resemble beef jerky before you can have respect.

Take my girl friends at school. I love them. They're awesome friends. But I've been eating lunch with the guys instead for 3 months now.

I mean, I can take it if someone says "That nutella sandwich will make you fat" once. But if they do it every day for a year and going? Eventually, you crack--kind of like a nutcracker, which serves as my segue into the article I want to share.

You can find it here. This brave, beautiful NYC ballerina would not let critics get to her. Jenifer Ringer is my hero of the day. She is gorgeous, stunning, she knows it, and she won't let a critic tell her otherwise. Heck, she doesn't even need his apology. She's that good.

It's like how the other day at my school, we were having a belly flop contest. One of the contestants from the sophomore class was overweight. When he stepped onto the diving board in shorts, my friends targeted him instantly. "He has no self control. He's a total loser. He's so fat. Do his parents do anything about it?"

I listened for about five minutes, after which I turned to my friends and told them, "At least he's proud of it."

And that shut everybody up.

They gave me a disbelieving, WHAT-ARE-YOU-ON look. I shrugged and added, "I think he's kind of cool. He's not ashamed of the way he looks. He's proud. I wish more people thought like that."

There was more awkward silence, before one of my friends finally piped up, "Yeah, you're kind of right."

I smiled and gave her a high five.

But she's 1 out of 9.

What sucks is that although I'm now recovered, I started the eating disorder trend among my friends 3 years ago, and within my school, it has now spread to affect 3 grades, countless girls, and too many bright, shining lives.

Right now, I want to fix it, one little bit at a time through subtle gestures like making my Facebook status, "I love you all just the way you are" or "Friends are like snowflakes, beautiful but different" (The Window of Starbucks, Thanksgiving day)<--Look! Proper MLA citation!!! (I'm still jaded from finals). Anyways, I read somewhere out there that 50% of women want to lose weight, and I guess what I'm really trying to say is: You are beautiful. You are strong. You are wise. You don't need to change.

This New Years, resolve to love yourself! Love who you are and everything that makes you who you are! Love nutella and banana sandwiches, which are an alternate heaven!

Totie Fields once said, "I've been on a diet for two weeks, and all I've lost is two weeks."

Once upon a time, I was on a crash diet for 2 years, and honestly, all I can say is that I've lost 2 years. And more, if you count all the dinners with Mom that I vetoed in favor of eating one bowl of cheerios, a banana, and some strawberries. I've never regretted anything more in my life. Those two years were the prime of my high school, that I should've spent having fun with friends and doing crazy stuff, not penned up in my room dreaming nightmares that involved eating chocolate cake.

If I could save anyone in the world, it would be all the girls out there who stand victim to body image criticism.

Everyone out there, please stay strong!!!