Stretch Marks June 2014 | Page 21

I first saw them in middle school. I think I was sitting cross-legged, and I saw them in my inner thigh, and I was like, "that's weird," and I asked my sister, and she was like "it means you're growing!" So I was all excited. And then freshman year of high school, I put on a shirt that had a little arc by the hips, and I noticed I had love handles, that was the first time I really noticed them, and that's when I started to be down about myself. So high school was pretty rough, and then junior year I started to realize that other things in my life mattered besides my body, like I started to realize I was funny, so I started doing more stuff that made me happy. And then when I came to Carleton, I have sort of accepted them, and if people comment on them I'm just like, "yeah, I got 'em, what's it to you?" But I try to be positive, like I work at a girls' camp, and I have fifteen-year old campers, and they complain about their bodies nonstop, and it's a little ridiculous. So I try to reel them back in, sort of think about the good stuff.