Body Image and Self-Esteem: 5 Tips for Boosting Body Confidence

It’s not easy to feel confident or secure about your body in today’s world, especially as a teenager or young adult. We’re constantly bombarded with pictures of supposed ‘perfection’ and narrow beauty ideals that make us question our self-worth. Add in the pressures of social media, mental health struggles, and everyone else’s opinion, and it’s a recipe for feeling less than great about yourself.

But here’s the truth: you are so much more than a body. In this next set of articles on body image, we’ll look at how you can learn to embrace the person that you are – inside and out.

1 Start to Embrace Your Unique Beauty

Your worth, or how ‘valuable’ you are, has nothing to do with fitting into beauty standards set by the media or fashion industry. This doesn’t just include your size or weight – you may feel worried about your height, hair, skin tone, facial features, fitness, and anything else that society likes to give an opinion on.

Instead of feeling weighed down by how your body looks or feels, focus on what it can do. This could include being able to move through the world to enjoy new sights, smells, tastes or experiences. You might appreciate that your body allows you to spend time with friends or family, take part in exercise, hobbies or activities, or enjoy eating your favourite foods.

Challenge negative thoughts and pay attention to the self-talk you subject your mind to. Try to flip your negative thoughts and instead make them empowering. For example, choose the less-than-favourite parts of your body, then try to think of something good about them. Perhaps your legs are strong for playing rugby, or your hands allow you to be a great artist. 

Repeat positive affirmations about your body to yourself in the mirror, such as I am healthy, I am powerful, or I smile a lot. Be kind to yourself while you learn to accept your appearance.

2 Build Body Confidence from the Inside Out

Cultivating body confidence starts with some inner work. This includes defying what society tells us is beautiful, and ignoring narratives about what you ‘should’ look like. Instead, consciously choose to see yourself through a lens of compassion, acceptance and self-love. You can turn up the volume on kind thoughts, and turn down any harsh criticism.

This shift takes time, but you can start building habits that will help you admire your body. Your new, healthy daily practices could include positive self-talk and gratitude journaling.

3 Resist External Pressures

However hard you work on self-love, it’s hard to feel fully confident about your body or appearance when external pressures and judgments seem to be everywhere. Perfect posts on social media, celebrity influencers and peer pressure can all contribute to shaping impossible ideals that very few people possess. No wonder so many of us struggle with how we look.

But here’s your reminder: you don’t have to subscribe to what anyone else says is the ideal body. Think about how flawed and exclusionary these ‘ideals’ are, then make a choice to live by your own definition of beauty that celebrates how diverse we naturally are.

4 Find Your True Self

Feeling comfortable in your own skin comes with knowing and embracing your true, authentic self. If you don’t feel like you know yourself yet, that’s ok. Take time to think about what you actually enjoy, rather than forcing yourself to comply with what others do, think or say. Ask yourself, what makes you feel strong, capable and empowered? What can you do to start showing up more as your unapologetic self?

5 Unfollow Toxic Influences

Spend time with uplifting people who make you feel good about yourself, and push out negative external influences. This means unfollowing social accounts that spread toxic body attitudes, even if they do so without malice. If an account makes you feel bad or unworthy because of the body image ideals it portrays, it’s time to take a break from it.

Instead, try to purposely expose yourself to body positive content and role models. This could include positive plus-size content, inspiring fashion ideas, or alternative styles and subcultures.

Final Thoughts

With so much external pressure to look a certain way, it can be hard to feel body confident. But continually working on self-love, walking away from external pressures, and unapologetically inhabiting who you truly are provides a powerful foundation to get started from. Define your own beauty and self-worth, and be confident in freeing yourself from old-fashioned societal pressures.