Why I don’t like “you look so pretty”

So in other words, I am ugly.Think about it...Makes sense now right? If I LOOK pretty your saying I'm not. 

      I just realized this when a friend jokingly said “oh what I don’t look pretty all the time.” That statement really got me thinking. I was taught to see the good in every person, their inner beauty. I truly believe that every woman is beautiful in their own way.

      So many women have self-esteem issues because of growing up with these stick then models, the ones who look like a strong wind could blow them over. Now I am nowhere close to being “fat” another word I don’t like. I am a very moderate size; I am petite in stature a whole 5 foot 3 inches. I was also blessed with a small bone structure. I haven’t always been this self-assured. I always felt I was fat, in middle school I started counting calories, in high school I ate maybe once a day. There was a time that my mom made a deal with me; I wasn’t to weigh less than 115 pounds, just seeing that number makes me cringe. Not because it’s so much weight, but because I thought if I weighed 115 pounds I would be huge, that “I would be one of those morbidly obese people.”

      The only time that I have had a healthy-ish, diet, I should say the only time I have ate three meals a day for more than two weeks straight, is when I was pregnant. I had to for my babies, they needed the nutrients I couldn’t help my innocent babies if I didn’t do what I should have been doing for myself.  Even though I was eating, I was still watching what I put into my mouth (until the end and I wanted everything). I tried not to think about the weight I was gaining (25 with my first and 15 with my second) instead I focused on the baby in my belly.

      Food issues still plaque me daily, it’s taken me many years just to know that I am not big in any means. I am still working seeing myself as a pretty woman. This isn’t a "oh tell me how pretty I am I need to hear it", I don’t the hubs lets me know all the time he finds me beautiful and really that’s all that matters. I want all women and girls especially to know that they are pretty no matter what size, shape, or color. We need to build our daughters up to know they are beautiful and strong, that they can and should grow up and have a wonderful sense of who they are and not need to look at fashion magazines and think that because they aren’t stick thin they aren’t good enough. 
So instead of saying your look so pretty or beauiful, why don't you let me know that they ARE. Sometimes a woman's beauty is hiding and other times its shining, why are we the judge of when that is.