Beauty isn’t just how we look. Society makes our appearance into a numbers game of measurements and size, but every curve and dimple is beautiful and perfectly natural. As long as you’re living healthily with a positive attitude, your “flaws” are just another thing to embrace that make you so unique and perfectly gorgeous.
Don’t use or encourage words like skinny. Use words like strong. Compliment her on how smart, funny, resilient she is, and how much potential she has, rather than how pretty her hair or eyes are.
Teach her about the outdated notions of the past, and about today’s women’s movement that won’t stand down from anyone. Teach her about the icons of her-story like Rosie the Riveter, Harriet Tubman, and Hedy Lamarr instead of praising the likes of the Victoria’s Secret models.
Remind her that social media can be used to celebrate beauty, but it only shows one side of things, and celebrating beauty in the authentic moments of reality is infinitely more valuable.
Teach her positive self-talk. Engrain the ideas that she is worthy, full of hope, and inspiring to you. Teach her to be tough on herself, but never condemn herself or be too harsh of a critic. Remind your daughter that self-love is not selfish, or conceited. Being generous with others and making a difference in their lives is a virtue, but so is being generous with yourself and acknowledging how far you’ve come.
Teach her that showing yourself love helps you show the right kind of love to those around you, and your positivity will overflow into their life with abundance if you live your own life this way.
Let her know that self-love means honoring and respecting our feelings, as well as responding to them in healthy ways. Let her know that sometimes self-love can take a village even though it seems like a thing of introspection, and asking for help is never something to be ashamed of.
Self-love means recognizing our power as women, not being afraid of it, and harnessing it into something magnificent that our fellow women can look up to and reciprocate.