A MIRROR AND A MILLION OPINIONS

Ada feels safest in her bedroom. There's hardly any noise from the outside to disturb her. The only external sound she hears is when her mum yells her name from the kitchen or her room, asking her to get something done.In her room, she has a mirror. She uses it to admire herself, sometimes convincing herself that she's the most beautiful girl in the world. Yes, she knows she's beautiful. She loves how she looks, she's comfortable in her body, and she wouldn't mind being made that way over and over again.But the moment she steps out of that door, other people's words begin to take the place of how she feels about herself. Suddenly, the confidence she had moments ago starts to disappear, and she doesn't feel quite as beautiful until she's back in her room.It's almost like an everyday cycle. "Are you sick?""Ahhh, don't you eat?""I can see your skeleton through your body!""If breeze blows now, it'll carry you.""Ada, abeg, don't wound me with your bone oo!" 😂What has she not heard, guyyy? 😂 Sometimes, she ends up laughing, not necessarily because the comments don't hurt, but because she genuinely wonders how people come up with these things. 😂But after the laughter, what next? She starts questioning how she looks. She becomes conscious of how her clothes seem to swim around her because almost all of them are baggy. Sometimes, she even feels a little bit jealous whenever she sees girls whose bodies seemed to fit the society's idea of " beauty" .Don't get me started on how she tries to eat the whole world, but somehow, nothing seems to change. She has a naturally fast metabolism, so all that extra eating might leave her stomach a little bloated, and a few hours later, everything is back to normal.You're asking her if she doesn't eat? Oga, if you put three big plates of rice in front of her, she'll probably finish them in one sitting. Okay, I'm exaggerating a little, but she eats. A LOT! She even considered taking weight gain products simply because of the things people said about her body. 🥲Is it a crime to be slim? One day, Ada was having a conversation with her best friend. One topic led to another, and somehow, the discussion landed on body image. Her friend, Zara, began complaining about how people made fun of her for being fat. Ada paused.Zara? The girl with arguably the most beautiful figure in their department?She was bewildered, but she didn't let it show. All she did was remind Zara how beautiful she was and how she didn't need to keep allowing people's opinions to affect how she saw herself. And then it hit her.Wasn't this the same thing she needed to tell herself? Her best friend had unknowingly opened her eyes to something that would change how she thought forever Regardless of how people look, there will always be someone who finds something to criticise and there will also be people who genuinely appreciate them. Think about it. Ada loved Zara just the way she was, and Zara loved Ada just the way she was. Neither of them needed to look like the other to deserve that love. And perhaps, that was enough. From that day, Ada began to understand that other people's opinions didn't have to become her reality. She thought herself perfect and decided if she ever wanted to change anything about herself someday, those decisions would be hers to make, not something she was pressured into by careless comments.So, whenever someone had something to say about her appearance, she still laughed.Only this time, it wasn't because she was trying to hide how much it hurt or convince herself that their words didn't matter.She simply understood that not every opinion deserved a place in her head.

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