Magazine ads and peer chatter will be enough for her to pick up on society’s sick perspectives about the female body. I will not be contributing to that.
We all get to choose our parenting style. We all get to choose what we say to our children. So many of us want our children to be free of the wounds we lived through in our own childhood.
Will we teach our daughters to focus on their body’s strength, on how they feel?
Will we teach our sons to respect girls’ bodies, by respecting our own in front of them?
As for me, the best I can do is let the outrageously big love I feel for my daughter escalate my own process of accepting that I am fine.
I am just fine, just the way I am, whether it’s summertime and my skin is glowing, or a long dark winter where I’m pale as a pigeon plucking snow from the curb. At age 14 I had magazine covers plastered on my walls because I thought supermodels were it, and I wanted to be like them. Now, things are different. Age has freed me up. Something like that.
Yes I know full self acceptance is a tall order. Yet I know it is worth wanting.
Thank you, child, for calling forth my wiser self. May you always know your legs are just the right size for you, too. May you have no idea how many thousands of hours I’ve spent criticizing my own body, and especially my legs, until someday by the fire while we’re camping, it feels like time to tell you that story.
Dear child, may your life show you a way that is glorious galaxies beyond the wisdom of mine.
Jessica Rios is a lifelong letter writer, 13-year Love and Leadership coach, and the founder of Leaning into Light. Her life’s work is dedicated to illuminating the beauty of the human spirit. Since she was a child, Love has been her religion. She lives with her husband and daughter in Petaluma, California and they are currently spending a year in Sweden.
