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50 people shared the one thing they'd change about their bodies. The kids' answers rocked.

The children heard the question TOTALLY differently than the adults.

Photo credit: Canva

When do we start learning to hate our bodies?

Body image is a strange thing. Babies aren't born with any opinions about their bodies one way or another, but as we age, we start forming judgments. We might be teased about one or more of our features or we might just absorb messages about beauty standards from the world we live in, but whatever causes them, a huge number people end up dissatisfied with parts of our body by the time we're adults.

But it doesn't have to be that way.

"If you could change one thing about your body, what would it be?"

In a video from Jubilee, 50 people were asked, "If you could change one thing about your body, what would it be?" and the difference between how the adults answered and the kids answered is striking—and telling. The adults listed off the specific features they didn't like and wanted to change—a smaller forehead, smaller ears, bigger eyes, a less puffy face, etc. The kinds of answers most of us would mostly likely give.

But the kids? They heard the question totally differently and answered it in the best way possible.

Watch:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Of course you would choose to have a mermaid tail or legs like a cheetah if you could change one thing about your body! Of course you'd want wings so you could fly and a shark mouth so you could eat all the things. Teleportation? Put it in me! Extra pointy ears? Heck yes, little elfling.

Or even just…nothing. "I wouldn't change anything. I like my body." That might just be the most revolutionary statement of the 21st century.

Kids aren't immune to being dissatisfied with their bodies, of course. Studies show that body image concerns can begin as early as age 3 and tend to increase year after year, peaking in adolescence. Keeping a child from slipping down the slope of body negativity is something for all parents to watch for. Thankfully, there are some things we can do to help protect kids' acceptance and celebration of their bodies just as they are.

How to develop and maintain a healthy body image

One way is to be careful about how we talk about bodies in general, including our own.

"What we say about our own bodies and other people’s bodies carries significant weight, especially in the presence of our children," pediatrician Mona Amin, M.D., writes on Instagram. "Our words shape their perceptions of self-worth and body image. When we talk about how we don’t want to get in a swimsuit because we haven’t 'lost the baby weight yet' or congratulate someone on looking skinny, we teach our children that there is a 'right' way to look. This subtly, and sometimes not so subtly, can make children start to scrutinize how they look, and can trigger insecurity and low self-esteem."

Another is to speak positively about the things our bodies—all bodies—can do rather than just how they look. Dr. Amin writes that children are borth with a natural sense of acceptance, but a keen observers they will often start to internalize the beliefs and attitudes of the adults in their lives. We can help them develop and maintain a healthy relationship with body image by promoting body neutrality and celebrating diversity in the way people look.

What does that look like in practice? Dr. Amin gives five specific examples:

1. Speaking positively about ourselves and our bodies both alone, with friends, and in front of our children
2. Positive affirmations about our body and what it DOES not how it looks: rewire the brain by feeding positivity where you need it
3. Celebrate qualities about people and kids and not how they look
4. Limit access to social media accounts and media that don’t promote body positivity
5. Not discussing weight in a negative way at doctor’s visits or ever.


via GIPHY

More compliments that aren't oriented around appearance, please

It's shocking how many compliments people get have to do with the way they look, and even positive comments can lead to an unhealthy emphasis on appearance. We can all try giving kids compliments like "That was such a smart observation!" or "I love the way you think!" or "Wow, that took hard work—way to go!" rather than focusing on how they look.

Parents on Dr. Amin's Instagram page shared how their kids responded to the question of what they'd change about their body if they could, and they reflect the responses in the video.

"Just asked my son this question and he said he'd change his feet into robot feet and would have robot arms and a robot belly🤖🥹"

"I asked my 5 year old daughter this question, and without any hesitation she said "I wouldn't change anything". By far, one of my most proudest moment as a parent."

"Just asked my three kids: Eldest said “I’d change nothing.” Youngest said “I don’t think I can anything but if I could, I would change everything to always be happiness.” Middle said “I would change madness… so that my body would never be mad anymore.” 🥹🥹🥹 Insecurities are taught. This really touched & convicted me 😭 Thank you for sharing this!"

"My kid said he would turn his body into Godzilla."

"🔥❤️ 6 year old said he would make a clone so they can go to school. 👏👏"

Let's all try to bring back that childhood wonder when we think about our bodies and celebrate the awesome powers they have—or even the imaginary ones they could have.

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This dancer struggled to feel beautiful. Now she commands the spotlight.

True
L'Oreal Dermablend

Mariah wasn’t concerned at first when an unusual spot appeared on her finger.

"I didn’t even notice until it started on my face, around my nose," she explained.

But as it progressed, she was diagnosed with vitiligo, a condition that causes the loss of skin color across her body. It started when Mariah was just 13, and she’s had it ever since.

All images via Upworthy.

"I wasn’t happy when it started," she said. "I already didn’t think [I] was perfect or good enough. I didn’t have the confidence to be seen."

Being seen, though, is a big part of Mariah’s life. That’s because Mariah is a dancer, with aspirations to dance professionally.

"I was always worried that having the skin condition that I do, I wouldn’t make it as a dancer," she confessed.

"I didn’t want to be the girl with the skin condition ... I was worried that people weren’t going to watch me.”

Coping with the condition was difficult for Mariah at first. But that began to change for her when, while browsing the makeup counter at the mall, she was encouraged to try Dermablend. For the first time, Mariah could feel comfortable in her skin.

"[It] gave me the confidence to begin to pursue dancing like I did," she explained. "I wasn’t a dancer who’s dancing with vitiligo; I was one of the dancers."

Throwing herself into dance, she said, helped her confidence grow. Slowly stepping out of the background and into the spotlight, she was able to learn who she was and find her own happiness.

Through that process, something amazing happened. Instead of feeling like she had to wear makeup, she started deciding when she wanted to wear it and when she did not. It was her choice.

"It doesn’t define my beauty ... [vitiligo] actually adds to the uniqueness, and it adds something to the look," she said.

Defining beauty on her own terms, Mariah is now able to pursue her passions with confidence.

Check out her story below:

Dermablend Reflections: Mariah

Growing up, she worried that her skin condition would keep her from her dream of being a dancer.

Posted by Upworthy on Tuesday, November 14, 2017

"I always thought I deserved to be in the background," she admitted. "Now, I realize that I do deserve to have my spotlight."

Mariah has embraced that spotlight, using her journey and her art to encourage others to tap into their own inner beauty. She is unafraid to take center stage. She now has ambitions to dance alongside some of the biggest artists in mainstream music.

"I can confidently say that I feel beautiful with and without makeup," she said, "because I’ve learned that Mariah is a beautiful person."

Today she uses makeup to enhance her features and embrace what she loves about herself.  Now she wears make-up when she chooses to. Gone are the days when she would hide behind foundation: Now her journey is all about showing up in the world without apologies.

The reason this woman walked from Mexico to Canada over 5 months is highly personal.

This is what resilience looks like.

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MDA Live Unlimited

Sophia Spooner's dad always finished what he started. That's one thing that kept Sophia going during her 2,659-mile hike.

Sophia's dad, Ray, passed away from ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) — a neuromuscular disease that causes weakness and eventual paralysis of all voluntary muscles, including those used for breathing and swallowing — on Aug. 8, 2016.

10 months later, Sophia started hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, which spans from the Mexico/California border all the way up to the Washington/Canada border, to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) and its ALS Care Centers, which provide specialized care for people like Ray.

"I wanted to do something I thought my dad would be proud of," Spooner says. "I know he would’ve been proud of me for doing this.”

Spooner on the PCT. Photo via Sophia Spooner.

Ray was no stranger to tackling major feats of endurance either.

Immediately after finding out he had ALS in 2014, Ray decided to bike across the country from San Diego, California, to St. Augustine, Florida, to raise funds for MDA. Not only did he complete his mission, he also raised $85,000 in the process and encouraged others to fundraise too, bringing the total to more than $120,000.

This was the initial inspiration for Sophia's walk.

"One thing I learned from him is if you do something crazy, people will give you money for a cause that you care about," Spooner says.

But what led her to the Pacific Crest Trail wasn't just this one example of strength. It was a culmination of everything her family went through after Ray's diagnosis.

Sophia and her dad Ray. Photo via Sophia Spooner.

Sophia had just returned from a semester abroad in India when her family sat her down and told her that her dad had ALS. It was January 2015, which meant she had to go back to school after being dealt this enormous blow.

Her last year and a half of college was anything but easy because she felt so removed from everything that was going on back home in Urbana, Illinois. Then she graduated and things changed dramatically.

Her father's condition had advanced rapidly, and she was immediately thrown into the role of caregiver along with her mother and siblings.

Going from being totally disconnected to caring for her father full-time was hard but ultimately life-affirming.  

Sophia and her family advertising shirts for Ray's bike ride. Photo via Sophia Spooner.

The experience solidified a bond between Sophia and her family in a way that nothing else could. It often involved challenges, especially when Ray lost the ability to speak, but there were still beautiful moments that Sophia cherishes.

The family had a ritual of putting on Leonard Cohen's album "Popular Problems" while they got Ray ready for bed; then they'd all lie down with him until he fell asleep.

And even when he could no longer speak, he'd tell his family he loved them through a series of breaths.

Despite the difficulties, Sophia and her dad's relationship grew stronger, especially because he got to see how capable his daughter really was.

Ray faced life and death head-on. Sophia wanted to do the same, and that meant stepping out of her comfort zone.

Sophia looking out on a sunset while on her hike. Photo via Sophia Spooner.

While her dad was a prolific hiker, Sophia had no such experience when she set out alone to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. It was altogether exciting and terrifying at first, but then she made some new friends on the trail and things started to get easier.

"I set up my tent the first night and yelled out, ‘Does anyone want to play Euchre with me?’ I got a couple takers and ended up hiking with them for more than 1,000 miles,” Sophia recalls.

She was by far the youngest — and probably the least experienced — among her group, but her confidence made up for it.

Sophia with her hiking buddies. Photo via Sophia Spooner.

Covering almost 20 miles a day was certainly taxing, but her emotional journey hit her just as hard, if not harder.

Her new friends were incredibly supportive, but she longed to have someone there who really understood what the past year had been like for her. Thankfully, her boyfriend Yoni was able to join her at mile 485.

Sophia with Yoni on the PCT. Photo via Sophia Spooner.

"Just being around someone who was aware of what I was going through was so liberating," Sophia says.

However, that didn't mean there weren't extremely difficult days.

Sophia with her hiking crew trudging through the mountains. Photo by Kayla Miller.

Some days the hikers trudging through heavy snow; others, they were laboring under oppressive heat. On one of the hottest days, they had to scale an impossibly steep hill. Sophia thought they could take a breather under a small tree at the top of it, but when they reached it, it provided little to no shade. That's when she heard her dad for the first time on the trail.

He told her, "Whelp, you better keep going!"

So she did, knowing he still had her back.

He was with her at night too in the form of the Lou Reed song "Perfect Day," from the album "Transformer"that Ray had “assigned” Sophia to listen to before and after his death. She would also play it over and over again on her phone as she hiked.

Her dad wasn't the only one pushing her forward when things got tough though. The MDA was also behind her.

Sophia at mile 500 on the PCT. Photo via Sophia Spooner.

MDA helped Sophia launch her campaign to raise money for ALS care and cheered her on just when she was about to give up.

"I was in Northern California and very very ready to quit the trail," Sophia recalls.

Then MDA reached out to her with messages of encouragement. She knew she couldn't let her cause or the MDA and ALS communities down.

Sophia finished her walk on Sept. 9 and is eager to get back home and start on a new adventure — life after college.

She'll always carry the lessons she learned on the trail and while caring for her father: live life beyond limits, keep your loved ones close, and always finish what you start.  

For more about Sophia's story, check out the video below:

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This colorful comic explores how Vincent van Gogh tackled one of his biggest fears.

Today, Vincent van Gogh is considered a world-renowned painter and artistic genius. This was not always the case.

Van Gogh lived in poverty and anonymity for most of his life.

He was born on March 30, 1853, one year to the day after his parents' first child (also named Vincent) arrived stillborn. He grew up poor and left school to help support his family. He worked in galleries and with art dealers but had a habit of falling in love with women who didn't love him back. After his first heartbreak, he became a teacher and religious evangelist. But when his contract at the church wasn't renewed, van Gogh turned to painting.

Though clearly talented, van Gogh didn't achieve fame or wealth for his work while he as alive. He suffered from mental illness and eventually checked himself into a hospital where he completed some of his most seminal works, including "Starry Night" and "Irises."

"Starry Night" and "Irises."

But while his genius and talent were second to none, there was one way Van Gogh was just like the rest of us.

He wrote more than 900 letters to his younger brother Theo, a lifelong companion and confidant. Even as his work matured and his talent took shape, Vincent van Gogh's letters revealed he still felt overwhelmed, inadequate, and anxious, especially when beginning a new piece. That fear is something we're all familiar with.

But even in his darkest hours, van Gogh fought that fear in order to create.

"You don’t know how paralyzing it is, that stare from a blank canvas that says to the painter you can't do anything," Vincent wrote to his brother.

"Life itself likewise always turns towards one an infinitely meaningless, discouraging, dispiriting blank side on which there is nothing, any more than on a blank canvas. But however meaningless and vain, however dead life appears, the man of faith, of energy, of warmth, and who knows something, doesn’t let himself be fobbed off like that. He steps in and does something, and hangs on to that."

Cartoonist Gavin Aung Than of Zen Pencils adapted van Gogh's letter to Theo into a comic story that feels as relevant today as it did in the 1880s.

Comic by Gavin Aung Than, used with permission.

Like van Gogh, most of us will struggle with feelings of inadequacy and fear at some point.

That's when we need to step up for ourselves the most.

Whether you're stressed about work, creative pursuits, or trying something new, it may help to find an accountability partner. That's someone you know and trust who you can share your goals and fears with, and vice versa. Exchanging hundreds of letters back and forth was van Gogh's style, but a quick coffee or text of support and encouragement may be just the boost you both need to get started.

Self-care and positive affirmations can also be useful when you need a little push. A study from Carnegie Mellon University confirms self-affirmations can improve problem-solving abilities and protect against stress. So in moments of doubt, extend yourself a little grace and remind yourself just how awesome you are. You don't have to be perfect. But if it's something you want, give it your best shot.

​Epilogue: So just how and when did van Gogh find success?

In his lifetime, van Gogh completed thousands of sketches, drawings, and watercolor and oil paintings. After his death at the age of 37 and Theo's death six months later, van Gogh's sister-in-law Johanna put his artwork on display in Paris. There, his popularity grew, and van Gogh was eventually celebrated as a pioneering painter and eminent Dutch artist.

Happy ending? Not quite. But an ending that wouldn't be possible if van Gogh hadn't "stepped in and done something." And we can hang on to that.

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