I Am That Girl

The average female model is 5’10” tall and weighs 107 pounds. She has impossibly high cheekbones, perfectly full lips and unattainably flawless skin. She is everywhere we look: magazine covers, television shows, movies, billboards, the internet.

In the western world, women are constantly subjected to the media’s idealized standards of what a woman should be. For the average American woman, standing 5’4” tall and weighing 166 pounds, everyday exposure to such self esteem can be daunting—so much so that her self esteem is often degraded.

This year, my friend Niki Billman and I founded a club at Chapel Hill aimed towards empowering women and undoing the images instilled into them throughout their lives. After observing the school for two years, we felt the club would be extremely beneficial to students.

The club is a chapter of a national organization called I Am That Girl.

The organization’s mission, according to its website, is to help “girls transform self-doubt in to self-love by providing a safe space to connect and have honest conversations about things that matter.”

Self-love is one of the major societal issues that Billman and I plan to tackle.

“Our goal is to encourage community members to be comfortable in their own skin and spread love and kindness to others,” Billman said.

We are hoping to promote positive mind sets and make sure students can look in the mirror and acknowledge how special they are. Our meetings will allow everyone’s voice to be heard, and we will discuss how to love our insecurities.

We plan to promote self esteem and acceptance all over Chapel Hill High School, one girl at a time.

The club meets twice a month on Fridays at lunch in room D-211.

#women