I had a lot of titles rolling in my head for this blog post, including “Summer a-weights” and “Weight no more: summer is here,” and then I realized that wordplay with “wait” and “weight” really isn’t that funny.

Huh. Self-awareness. How humbling. 

No matter the blog title, here’s the deal: summer is an elite season. All you people who don’t like being sweaty, or who hate bugs, or who like fall fashion, or who are BIG Christmas people, I do understand where you’re coming from, but summer is just so magical. There’s always an air of possibility; it always seems like there’s something to do, and it’s also summer-clothes-and-bikinis- and-barbecue-and-graduation-and-prom-and-wedding season. Summer is the time for festivals, for cookouts, and for taking girls trips to the lake.

Summer is the season of opportunity. 

Unfortunately, because of this opportunity, summer is also the season of pressure. Lots of it, too, might I add, especially when it comes to body image. 

I’ve written countless blog posts and waxed poetic on social media about how we should wear what we want during the summertime, so I won’t bore you with that very important and eternally relevant message.

You’re welcome.

I will, however, point out something that I don’t think we consider when summertime rolls around: we only get one life, and one body to carry us through it. 

It’s hard to remember that concept when you are assaulted by messages from all over the place, pressuring you to change your one body so that it’s “ready.” Ready…for what? 

Summertime arrives, and boom. All of a sudden, the pressure is on. 

Planning on going to the beach or the pool at any point this summer? Better get “bikini-ready.” 

Planning on stepping outside, like, at all? Better get your arms ready to wear tank tops. 

Going to prom this month? Better get your body “ready.” 

And, God forbid, getting married this summer? Better get ready and make sure you fit into your dress when the big day comes around, since that’s clearly the most important part of holy matrimony.

All of this talk of “being ready.” What does that even mean? Being… smaller? 

So, magazines, social media and the general murmuring of our grand society today are all telling me that summer is a time for shrinking? And if you don’t, then what? Then you’re not “ready” to partake?

It’s honestly one big question mark to me. 

Summer is the season where, unfortunately, our feelings about our bodies dictate what we wear the most. I wish it wasn’t like that, but thanks to media attention on “best and worst celeb bikini bodies,” society’s glorification of thinness and general fatphobia, and years and years of generational trauma highlighting that skinny = good and praiseworthy, and not skinny = shameful and needing to change – I’m rambling; bear with me – it, in fact, IS like that. 

This is a strange concept, this idea of “preparing” your body to live its life, in a solely aesthetic way. It’s not like bears eating a bunch before hibernating, or bunnies shedding their fluffy winter coats for tawny summer ones. Those are functional changes, “preparations” that make sense in the grand scheme of the universe. 

Humans, however, feel societal pressure to get our bodies “ready” for summer for what, simply the sake of having a flat tummy? It’s all aesthetic. 

Weird, huh? 

We have been primed to perceive having a thin body as some sort of twisted moral accomplishment, but here’s a summer newsflash for everyone, whether you’re in a thin body, fat body, tall body, short body, old body, young body, body-ody-ody-ody-ody (Megan Thee Stallion, I love you): existing in the body you have at this exact moment is okay.

In fact, it’s more than okay. It’s you. You don’t need to change your body or get it “ready.” It’s already ready already. 

It’s more than okay. It’s you. You don’t need to change your body or get it “ready.” It’s already ready already.

Now, I always feel like I have to throw in a disclaimer when I write about this topic, so here it is: I’m not demonizing weight loss. If you feel like, for your health, losing weight is necessary, then by all means, take care of your body in the best way you can. Do it healthily, without disordered eating practices that are so woefully normalized these days, without fad diets, and without punishing yourself or jeopardizing your mental health. Taking care of your body is a good thing. 

Since we constantly have to dodge glorified, unhealthy weight-loss messages (Kim K at the Met Gala, anyone? If you don’t know what I’m talking about, see this great article for Allure by Nicola Dall’asen) encouraging us to get our bodies “ready” – whether it be for a red carpet appearance or a week at the beach – it’s no wonder we feel like we always have to change. 

But we don’t. We get one life and one body to live it with, and we HAVE to stop acting like the bodies that carry us every day, the body that is your home even now, as you read this, aren’t “good enough.”

We need to stop acting like our bodies aren’t ready to live the lives they are ALREADY living. 

The number on the scale doesn’t have to shrink in order to prove that you’re ready for summer, for your wedding, for your prom, for your vacation, or for the Met Gala. 

You’re good enough now.

You’re ready now.