body confidence on holidays

Body confidence is something that I struggle with on the daily. Like many teenagers, I find beach holidays difficult even though I’ve been brought up near the coast. Today was my first day in Elounda in Crete (Greece) where I’m staying in this lovely hotel with two pools and the cliche hotel things like spas. It is a stunning area to stay in as I’m surrounded by these massive mountains towering over the sea with little white houses cruising on the hillside. However, quite obsessively, I was worried.

Pools is something that I avoid on every holiday; it’s a place which I hate in my head. The loud kids, the ice creams, the stares and the perfect bodies that other people host. On the airplane, there was this girl a little bit older than me who was with her boyfriend. While waiting before boarding, I prayed not to be in front of them because I was jealous (I ended up sitting in front of them. SHE HAS THE IDEAL BODY. The flat stomach, the long legs and a booty which I would kill for. So rather rudely of me, I thought wrongly that I don’t want to be near her because she probably thinks of me as this fat lump. But let’s be real. I’m not fat and she’s most likely a very nice person because she gave me this lovely smile to reassure me because I probably look very nervous (I hate flying).

Anyways, getting to the point. While sitting at the pool today, refusing to go in for a while. I noticed that there were all different types of body figures around me and not one shape I think was ugly nor disgusting. Thinking that made me realise that nobody gives a shit about what I look like apart from myself and that I should just get in the pool. I wanted to go in the pool; I craved the cold water. So in a spur of a moment with the motivating girl power band Little Mix playing in the background of the pool’s music, I went in and stopped giving a shit.

My main message from my first day at Crete is that we should enjoy our time instead of restricting what we do because we are worried about what we look like.

I know this is one of the millions of blog posts about body confidence but I just felt like we all need a little reminder sometimes that we are just human and not bloody barbies.

Astrid X