Body image is how you see yourself when you look in the mirror or when you picture yourself in your mind. It encompasses what you believe about your own appearance (including your memories, assumptions, and generalisations). How we define body image is entirely subjective and highly individualistic. 

Recent decades have seen an amplification of body positive movements, in counter to the endless streams of ‘unrealistic beauty standards’, including the photoshopped, Facetuned, tweaked, filtered and edited media we are exposed to daily. Young people are even trying to get plastic surgery to look more like filters on their smartphones, which has been determined as ‘Snapchat dysmorphia’, as a result of our ever distorted perception of reality. 

Body positivity movements are emerging counter to this, in an urgent call to stop the comparisons and celebrate who we are as we are. But self-comparison is a human trait. We were programmed to compare for basic survival instincts. Our brains, however, were not computed to absorb endless streams of media, content and messaging that plays into our insecurities and human instincts of comparison. 

Body neutrality is a movement that seeks to not place expectations on ourselves to love our bodies all the time. But instead to find peace in our insecurities. Appreciation for our flaws and a respect for the things our body does for us daily, to keep us alive. Are brands and social media platforms doing enough to include, represent and celebrate a diverse range of people?