What is body image?
Body image is how you see, think and feel about your body. It is not the same as how your body actually looks.
During puberty your body changes quickly, and it is common to feel unsure about it. Comments from relatives at weddings, jokes at school and images online can all affect how you feel.
Feeds are not real life
Many images online are filtered, edited, posed in perfect lighting or chosen from hundreds of shots. Some influencers are paid to promote products by making you feel you need them.
Apps and advertisements often push one narrow look: very thin, very muscular, or very fair. Real bodies come in every shape, size, skin tone and ability.
Algorithms show you more of what you linger on. If you keep seeing content that makes you feel bad, the app learns to show you more of it.
Every body is different
Bodies differ in shape, size, height, skin, hair and how they develop. Some people are born with bodies that do not fit typical ideas of male or female, which is called intersex.
Some people's gender, their inner sense of who they are, is different from the sex they were assigned at birth. Everyone deserves respect and the right to feel safe in their body.
Building a kinder relationship with your body
Curate your feed: unfollow or mute accounts that make you feel worse, and follow ones that make you laugh, learn or feel inspired.
Focus on what your body can do: climb stairs, dance at a sangeet, play cricket, hug your grandmother.
Avoid commenting on other people's bodies, even as a joke. Compliment effort, kindness and ideas instead.
If you find yourself checking the mirror constantly, avoiding events because of how you look, or changing how you eat to change your body, talk to someone you trust.