Next time you go to bitch about your thighs? Stop and remember this.

You do it. You do it all the time. We know you do. Because all of us here at Mamamia do it. And so do all the women we know. We let our body image issues come to the surface – and we validate them by saying it out loud.

You walk past a glass shopfront and suck your stomach in. You go to grab a cupcake at the morning meeting and then put it back, saying “I better not, it’ll go straight to my hips“. You eat an extra row of chocolate and say to your girlfriend’s “I feel so fat”. You’re shopping with your mum and you mention that you “hate” your thighs.

Shaming our own bodies and reflecting negatively on how we look has become a part of our everyday lives. Culturally it’s accepted; so much so that it’s almost become unusual NOT to hate your own body.

But do you ever stop and think that the children around you are watching this behaviour? That they’re learning and remembering what you say and do; slowly coming to believe that hating your own appearance is expected, it’s part of being a woman.

And that? Is a tragedy. And as women, we’re the only ones who can stop it. As this amazing woman expresses in a beautifully eloquent way, here. Watch it. Remember it.

And next time you go to say something negative about your own body? The next time you physically demonstrate your body image issues in front of a child? Think again.