FEBRUARY 22: Jessica Simpson attends Create & Cultivate Los Angeles at Rolling Greens Los Angeles on February 22, 2020 in Los Angeles, California.
As women, we continuously feel we have to live up to unrealistic expectations society has carefully crafted for us. While men additionally encounter similar expectations, it's nowhere near the amount women endure on a day-to-day basis. One individual speaking out about this injustice is Jessica Simpson.
In a newly released version of her bestselling memoir 'Open Book,' Simpson includes a 2009 journal entry surrounding a concert appearance that made headlines for how she looked in "mom jeans." "Today my heart breaks because people says I'm fat." Simpson wrote. "Why does the cruel opinion of this world get to me?" she continued. "Last week I read back to my journals from 1999 and I beat myself up about how fat I [was] before I even gave the world a chance to..."
While reflecting back on her career Simpson recalls spending so many years beating herself up for an unrealistic body standard that made her "feel like a failure all of the time." Simpson is not alone in thinking this. Numerous women often feel inadequate in their bodies solely because society has purposefully made them feel that way.
We're told we have to fit into a certain mold in order to be accepted into society's fold. But beauty is a universal concept, and should be celebrated as such. No two individuals are alike, and by creating these impractical standards, the media makes it challenging for women to practice self-love.
"There is a wonderful movement for body positivity now and the response to that portion of my story has been overwhelmingly supportive," Simpson told PEOPLE. "I don't think people always realized that there was a human being, a beating heart and working eyes with actual feelings behind those headlines and that words can hurt and stay with you for a lifetime."
Now a mother of three kids, Simpson said she believes in her heart "that a healthy body and a sound mind-body connection are what's truly important and help me accept imperfections as beauty."
I'm so happy to hear Simpson has since embraced her figure and tuned out the negative comments surrounding her body. Rather than pressuring women to look a certain way, the industry should alter its views on women's bodies, and normalize an industry that allows women to feel comfortable in their own skin.
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