Shocking ‘A 4 Waist Challenge’ is Dangerous New Social Media Fad

I'm so over all the judgement that people pass on others for being too skinny or too fat. How about we step off and instead of acting like catty little brats, we start building people up for their good traits instead of picking at what we believe to be their faults? Maybe if we, as a society, stopped being so shallow, we'd open ourselves up to all of the awesome people void from out lives because we've pushed them away based on how their shell looks.

I have such a love-hate relationship with social media. I'm all about staying in touch with family and friends and meeting new people, but despise the hatred I see spewed every day. It seems like one minute, women are inspiring and uplifting each other by promoting body positivity and good health, and then literally the next minute, our gender is taking a million steps backward with something like the #A4WaistChallenge.

Things like this challenge scare me because impressionable young girls are actually participating. For whatever insane reason, women have started taking a standard, 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper, also known as A4, and holding it in front of their waist the long way to see if they're thinner than the width of the paper. If they're thin enough, they take a selfie with the paper and post it to social media for the world to see.

I find this incredibly disturbing. If you were born skinny, that's one thing. But, if you're a woman my size (hint, I'm not tiny- never was, never will be) and you're trying to train your waist to fit into some insane social standard, that something completely different.

If you have a daughter who spends a lot of time on social media, please make sure that you talk to her and make it very clear that if she sees this challenge she needs to know that it's not cute or funny or healthy.

[via Cosmopolitan]