When scrolling through Instagram or even just tapping through Instagram stories or Snapchat stories, girls are bombarded with pictures of other girls who seemingly meet “perfect” standards according to society today. And when I say “standards,” we all know what I mean: the girls who are curvy with large chests and even larger bottoms.

No offense to the girls that are naturally shaped like that, but the girls who pay to enhance their curves are not being the best role models for those who are not naturally shaped that way.

Celebrities have a lot of say in what the latest beauty standard is for the year that they’re popular. What I mean by this is that no one celebrity is always popular. So when celebrities like Kim and Khloe Kardashian or Nicki Minaj come along and they have huge plastic butts, it gets seen as a new trend or another beauty standard that girls must achieve again.

It’s a disappointment that now being curvy can literally be someone’s brand, for it shows younger girls that all they need to be able to do is have a large bust and a big butt, pose with some kind of weight loss supplement, and copy and paste the brand deal to get paid thousands.

This generation has a want— no, a need― to be famous for something whether it’s a funny tweet or picture or video of them going viral.

We have forgotten that the original purpose of social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter were initially made to alert people about breaking news or to keep up with friends from high school or college.

In the past, we had the obsession with “thigh gaps” or girls with larger busts. We praised girls who had thigh gaps and larger busts, and shamed girls who didn’t. It’s the same thing just with a different body part. It’s like electing a new president. Every four years we get some new trend.

Social media platforms like Instagram and Snapchat, are exacerbating the problem by putting pressure on girls to always look their best and to be perfect.

With the filters built into the cameras for the apps that can alter a person’s eye color or make their face appear slimmer, these filters can sometimes draw attention to certain features that a girl didn’t even know she could be insecure about.

This is a message to all girls: we need to stop comparing ourselves. We need to learn how to love what we were born with. Yeah, it sucks that we don’t meet whatever beauty standard is trending, whether it’s big butts or large busts. But in the end, these trends won’t help us succeed in the long run. We must love who we are and what we’re born with.

The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the GENESIS staff. Reach Jiana Woods at [email protected].