Love Yourself and be OK With Who You Are

For Self-Worth Awareness Day (SWAD) this year, I helped organize a special trip to a local mall with a group of young girls.  These girls were between the ages of 12 and 18, and we decided we were going to walk the mall looking for women to talk to about self-worth. The experience turned out to be more than I expected!

At first it was pretty scary for the girls to talk to random strangers, but we encouraged them to step out of their comfort zone.  After a few tries (and rejections) they developed an approach that seemed to work pretty well and got us a lot of responses.

As expected we did run into several women who were unwilling to answer our question, for one reason or other, but we also found many women who were not only willing, but enthusiastic about our question. In fact, in just over an hour, we were able to get 43 women and girls to respond to our question!  Some gave really quick, simple answers, but others really took the time to explain to the girls what self-worth meant to them.  It was amazing to see the emotions on the women’s faces as they answered the question. 

We found one woman, named Kristen, walking with her husband and pushing her young daughter in a stroller.  She was more than happy to stop and answer the question and told the girls how impressed she was with them for taking the time to do this.  It was sweet to see her answer the question while glancing at her young daughter.  It was apparent by her body language, voice tone, and facial features that Kristen was deeply moved by our question.

Kristen said, “Self-worth is knowing that you are great no matter what, and loving yourself for everything, every part of you.” 

Every now and then we ran into women like Kristen, who became emotional while answering our question, and the girls were also clearly touched. 

For me, it was quite the experience to watch these girls step outside their own comfort zones and talk to woman they didn’t know about self-worth.  For the girls, the experience was powerful in a way we didn’t expect.   Many of them expressed the desire to do it again, only the next time they want to video tape the women’s responses so that they can ‘capture the emotion’ in their answers.  It looks like we have an idea for next year’s SWAD!  

When we were all done, we spent a few minutes asking the girls the same question we had asked the women.  Here are some of their answers to the questions “What does self-worth mean to you?”

Raiana (14)-“How you look at the world and how you look at the image you’re putting out there. It’s how I want to be presented in front of the Lord.”

Rebekah (17)-“Loving myself the way God loves me. It means respecting myself and also respecting others so that they get a sense of self-worth as well. Valuing yourself is very important and it impacts your entire life.”

Lauren (14)-“Loving yourself despite what society tells you are your ‘flaws’.”

Leah (15)-“Self-worth means that you feel comfortable in your own skin.”

Shannan (14)-“Love yourself and be OK with who you are.”

Soriah (15)-“Believing in yourself, recognizing your true potential and recognizing your worth in times of trial.”

Sefra (17)-“Being able to see yourself as God sees you. Knowing that the media doesn’t accurately represent what women are like is a key part of self-worth for me. Also being confident enough to not feel the need to dress immodestly. My confidence and internal worth should come from myself, my Heavenly Father, and not from approval of the media or some stupid boy.”

Thank you to the SSS Project for giving us this wonderful opportunity to learn about self-worth.

Alicia