On Being a "Real" Woman

{Charlotte Russe: dress similar here in turquoise, shoes similar; White House Black Market: crochet cardi similar}

I was going to make this post a Sunday confessions post and just keep it real short, sweet, funny, and simple because of the massive project I have to do for my graphic design class (I have to invent my own fictional company, make a logo for it, design a sales brochure for it, and then design a small ad for it. Butt load of work right?? I've got a good amount of it done and I'm so excited for it, though!). I got to looking through these photos, though, and the first thing that caught my attention were my legs. Not at all vain, right? Ha, they didn't catch my attention in a "daayyyung, I've got a nice pair of legs" kind of way, though. They caught my attention because after all of these years they still look like chicken legs. Twiggy little things that couldn't fill in a boot if their life depended on it. Noticing them got me thinking about my older sister. She has THE perfect legs, not too thin, not too big and just the right amount of muscle. Growing up we were always -and still are- the best of friends. She was my idol. I looked up to her in so many ways. Anything she did I had to do too. Wherever she was you could count on finding me right behind her. As we got older she just turned into this bootylicious perfect hourglass shaped woman overnight. My dad would always tell her she looked like a perfect little coke bottle. Curvy on top and bottom and a tiny little waist! I was just always "la flaca" or "seca Keka". La flaca is Spanish for the skinny one and "seca" is Spanish for thin which happens to rhyme with my families nickname for me, "Keka", so I was thin Keka. I remember seeing my sister and thinking to myself, "wow, now that's what a real woman is supposed to look like! I can't wait for it to happen to me!". Of course it never did. I take after my mom's side, a line notorious for it's twiggy legged women, and my sister takes after my dad's side, a line in which the women are known for their enviable bodacious figures. At the time, I hadn't realized this so throughout my teen years I waited and waited and waited for the day to come when I would miraculously turn into this "real" woman overnight. It was only till my junior year of High School that I realized that if my magical transformation into a real woman was ever going to happen it would've already happened. Of course I was a little disappointed, but I grew to embrace it. Talking to my sister in the years since, I've realized that having that awesome figure of hers wasn't always a walk in the park for her. She went through a lot of struggles as a young girl from having developed her hourglass frame at such a young age. As we've talked about this on different occasions we've both come to realize that through those early years we both longed to look like the other. I longed for her "perfect woman body" and she longed for a break from her "perfect woman body" and for a day as "seca Keka". I guess that saying is true, "the grass is always greener on the other side". We always seem to want what we don't have. Anyway, I feel like women as a whole have been collectively pushing for all of us to embrace our bodies and I completely agree that it's something we should all strive for. I never hated my body by any means, mostly because I was raised by a mother who told me day in and day out that I was a beautiful human being and that in order to be loved I had to love myself first. My issue growing up was that I just had expectations and hopes for my body that weren't exactly realistic. Once I realized my hopes weren't ever going to come to fruition I fully embraced myself and was able to realize that the grass is greenest where I choose to water it and allow it to shine. With that said, let's all as women work towards being more loving towards ourselves and a little less critical shall we? We're all by nature a beautiful group of people so let's embrace ourselves as we are whether we're curvy, thin, tall, short, or in my case chicken legged. Our bodies are constantly changing, it's a fact of life and we need to learn to love our bodies in all of it's stages. The stages when our bodies are fitter or even the stages when our bodies are curvier. To be a "real" woman is to love yourself so that others can love you! :)

Much love!

P.S.
Thank you to all of you lovely ladies who recently followed my blog on bloglovin' you're all amazing!!