Working out and eating healthy is always a good idea regardless of any other facts or statistics. However, working out solely for the purpose of getting a bigger butt is completely ridiculous and can cause body image problems as well as unnecessary anxiety.

Today’s society has completely changed the view of an ideal body image, and this image seems to be changing faster than clothing styles. While last year the focus was on hardly eating three almonds a day and having the perfect body with a thigh gap and a small waist, within the past six months, a ridiculous amount of new standards have arisen. Celebrities promote these ever changing norms which creates obnoxious standards and poisoning the views young girls have about their bodies. It seems that every season this image is changing and it is so unnecessary and draining to keep up with.

As a teenage girl it is seemingly hard to ignore looks and the media when it comes to trendy topics but this is a topic that can mess with the mind and the body in dangerous ways.

The Kardashians in particular have always been known for their “donks.”  Khloe and Kim have their favorite ways to show off their butts all over social media platforms including Twitter, Instagram and their own apps, which they released just last year. While Khloe advocates working out with her frequent gym posts on her social media, the truth is, along with these workouts, she has had an enormous amount of plastic surgery to go along with it. Kim, as well, enjoys showing off her “perfect” hourglass shape all over the web, but these bodies are not realistic or natural results. Unless you have the genes of a mermaid or the luck of Jennifer Lopez, no amount of dieting or squats will allow you to achieve this goal; so why squat and starve yourself to death?

Celebrities always seem to post the most perfect pictures on their social media, but these pictures are simply highlights or are taken on a day when they have woken up less bloated, but the human body naturally fluctuates, disposes or holds onto water in different ways.

Recently, Essena O’Neil, a well known model on Instagram, changed all of the captions on her photos of her body to show what the caption really should have been. The captions were changed to quotes such as “For this photo, I hardly ate for a week…”. Just because a picture is posted, doesn’t mean the person looks that way or eats that meal all hours of the day. Pictures are posted to show themselves at their brightest hour in the most perfect lighting and the most perfect angle, this doesn’t mean they’re always perfect or lack flaws.

Not everyone will be completely lean all the time in a healthy way.  Fat doesn’t just magically disappear from all the areas you want it to as soon as you start exercising. It takes time and consistency to see lasting results, and everybody’s body responds differently to different methods. Going to the gym and doing thousands of squats and butt raises will not make you perfect or Kim Kardashian. Everyone’s body is different and beautiful in its own way regardless of what society will ever tell you.

Just because the Kardashians have large “donks” doesn’t mean you have to in order to be perfect or the best version of yourself. Sure, work out, eat healthy, do it for your own cardiovascular health and sanity, but there is no need to do thousands of squats to achieve a perfect peach emoji butt in the process. Just because others are trying to do it does not mean you have to follow what society tells you to do. Dare to be different and healthy and work out to be the best you that you can be, not some plastic hourglass barbie doll.

The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the HiLite staff. Reach Gabby Perelmuter at [email protected].