Twirly, Swirly

I honestly don't quite know why I do it to myself, but earlier this week I decided it would be a good idea to go and stand outside in a short sleeved dress. It's all for you guys, I blame you, okay? So anyway, here's me wearing my new favourite thing. A pretty, twirly, swirly dress. The past few months have seen me really get into the whole monochrome thing, and I feel like this outfit embraces it whole-heartedly. In between (unfortunately sporadic) blogging sessions I've been bombarded with homework, but I have some fun things coming up soon!

I'm always interested to see what you would like to read on here, or alternatively, which blogs you can't get enough of. Leave me links down in the comments-I'll check them out whenever I get a free second. 

I hope you all read Maria's blog but if you don't, let me point you to her corner of the web. She recently wrote an amazing post which I would love you to share with any guys and girls you think should read it. I think it's might be quite a strange, unexpected thing for a fashion blogger to be like 'hey, I don't actually always like having my picture taken.' I totally know how this feels- some days my appearance knocks me down, and other times it won't cross my mind for days. I think that's pretty normal, until you throw in the fact that I regularly post pictures of myself on a blog for everyone to see. I could really relate to Maria's blog post and although I don't think it's something that I've ever talked about on here before, I love that she had the courage to write that post and click publish. 

"I Wanna be a Real Life Barbie"

Yep, I've done it again. I've gone and blogged about Body Image. So the other day I found this image about how unrealistic a Barbie Doll's image is. I've seen things similar to this before, but I think the image, along with the description below, is so powerful.

It kind of scares me that we are bombarded with images of what "beauty" is from such a young age. It also scares me that the industry I want to work in can be so critical of Body Image, to the point where people feel pressured to change their body and lead an unhealthy lifestyle. In no way am I saying that the Fashion Industry encourages people to develop Eating Disorders  but maybe the ideals that they show to people make it normal to be extremely slim. Don't get me wrong, if you're naturally slim there's nothing wrong with that either; what I disagree with is people wanting to change their body because they feel there is pressure to, or because they feel their current image is not normal and acceptable. Health is the most important thing.

I don't intend for this piece to disillusion you about the Fashion Industry. The Fashion Industry is an incredibly creative industry with so many positives and I accept that nothing can be perfect. But maybe it could be improved? I'm also not saying that Barbie is telling us to have that figure, but to me, it does send messages that this is beautiful and desirable for girls.

So I'll leave you with this. I don't know how accurate this information is, but regardless of that, it really makes you think.

If Barbie was an actual woman, she would be 5'9" tall, have a 39" bust, an 18" waist, 33" hips and a size 3 shoe.

• Barbie call this a "full figure" and likes her weight at 110 lbs. 
• At 5'9" tall and weighing 110 lbs, Barbie would have a BMI of 16.24 and fit the weight criteria for Anorexia. It would be likely that she would not menstruate. 
• Slumber Party Barbie was introduced in 1965 and came with a bathroom scale permanently set at 110 lbs with a book entitled "How to Lose Weight" with directions inside stating simply "Don't Eat". 

Tumblr Thoughts

I've never really written a post like this before, but after thinking about it for a while I decided to just do it. I don't intend to be deliberately controversial; maybe you'll disagree with what I think, but maybe you'll agree. I simply wanted to voice my opinion and see what you all think.

Recently I've been having a love/hate relationship with Tumblr. Don't get me wrong; I do like using it. There are so many funny gifs, gorgeous photographs and great quotes. The more I use Tumblr, the more I discover how popular things like fan-fics are, but the more I also see how there are other more negative communities on there. The one I have in mind is that of the obsession with body image, weight and our general appearance, the majority of which focuses on teenage girls of my own age.

If you're unfamiliar with this, then the images I have stumbled across are typically those of prominent collar bones, thigh gaps and extremely skinny figures, all with captions musing about how 'beautiful' it is, and how they wish they looked like that. To me this seems crazy. I completely understand that everyone has insecurities about their image, and I am certainly not an exception to that rule. However, I think it's a real shame that something with such a great concept such as that of Tumblr is being used to promote such an unhealthy image. I found this concerning when I read that the typical demographic of a British Tumblr user is, maybe unsurprisingly, female and between 18-24 years old. It also worried me that if I could stumble across them on my own dashboard without even searching for a specific tag, then how prominent are these images on the site?

So is this a problem? In my opinion it is. We always blame the Media for promoting unrealistic ideas of beauty, but I think that the Internet is also becoming increasingly responsible, especially due to image sharing websites like Tumblr. I don't want to point the blame on Tumblr, it is by no means alone in having this content, and it is also home to loads of great content.

Its important to remember how natural it is for our bodies to change as we grow! I think people strive to keep a boyish, shapeless figure and maybe we need to realise how everyone has different body shapes. What's most important is that your body is healthy, and that your mind has a good attitude towards a healthy lifestyle.

I'd love to hear what you think about this- have you experienced a body-obsessive culture on Tumblr or any other social networking site, and do you think it's a problem? I look forwarding to hearing what you think!