Back in the day, curvy women were considered beautiful. In fact, having curves and a little extra meat on your bones was a good thing; it was a symbol of wealth to the public because it meant you had more than enough food. Then, of course, there was the Marilyn Monroe era where women were influenced to embrace their curves. Then somewhere over the year, women were overcome with pressure to be stick thin.

Since when were ribs beautiful? If you walk through the mall, ads of women and girls often falsely depict what an “average” woman looks like. It’s a difficult world out there where image and self-confidence are concerned.

It doesn’t just affect women anymore, though. If you asked girls and young women who the “hottest” celebrity males were, I have no doubt their choices would have the perfect six pack of abs because they have the time to spend three hours in the gym every day. For most people-because let’s face it, the general public doesn’t work in Hollywood and have a personal trainer-work consists of forty to sixty hours behind a desk. Then if you factor in family commitments, sleep, recreation, you name it, there are not three hours left for exercise.

In order to have those bodies that models, actresses and other celebrities sport, people would have to starve themselves or find hours in the day to exercise their lives away. Although the world is getting better about promoting a healthier and more normal body image, i.e. the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, we still live in a world plagued by the pressure to have a perfect body. If you can’t pull of a bikini or take off your shirt and display washboard abs, you aren’t “good looking”.

We have work to do. The Dove campaign or others similar to it are just the beginning to a necessary reformation. Aside from a media overturn, it’s a personal thing as well. People need to learn that they don’t need to compare themselves to celebrities. We weren’t meant to be stick thin or spend hours in the gym to have a ripped body. It isn’t really human. And though obesity is an entirely different issue, the starved models are just as much of an issue, except on the other side of the spectrum.

My point is this: exercise when you can, make an effort to eat healthy, and learn to love your body, even if it doesn’t look like Jennifer Lopez or Zac Efron’s because a life of obsession over your body isn’t a life at all.