Hyoyeon shared in an interview on Gabee’s Rising Star that she felt insecure about her body image when she debuted. Like many peers, at a young and impressionable age, Hyoyeon did not have a very healthy self-perception as an idol.
As Girls Generation’s main dancer, Hyoyeon struggled with her body image because she felt that she had heavy thighs due to the frequent dance training. Hyoyeon calls them “thick thighs” and felt they were ugly and not suitable for an idol.
She confessed that she did not walk around after performances because of people’s comments about her thighs being unattractive. She wanted to lose her muscles and even thought of giving up dancing because of it.
“I didn’t like how I looked, and it was also uncomfortable when people were watching.”
However, through the years, Hyoyeon physique has changed as she matured, including lossing the muscles in her thigh.
Hyoyeon shared that when she realised her thigh muscles were gone, she regretted berating herself for the way she looked when she was younger as it is now harder to do all the dance moves without the muscles that she used to have.
“When I dance now, it’s frickin’ hard”
There are always two side to a coin, choose between strength and power as you do your moves, or the unattainable perfection that others expect of you.
Having been through the rough ride of living up to everyone’s ideals about you, Hyoyeon has grown wiser.
“I don’t delve too deeply into everything that people say.”
“I think, Say whatever you want. I won’t cross the line because I have a clear view inside of me. “
There will always be a body part that we hate. Maybe someone has made fun of that feature because it doesn’t fit into someone else’s ideal of beauty. This can lead to distorted thinking that we have about our-selves and affect our self-esteem.
Positive Self-talk is so important in learning to embrace those unloved body parts. Here is what you can do.
- Identify how distorted our thoughts are about this one specific body part.
- Reframe your thoughts – While muscular limps may not fit in with a certain cultural and social lenses, think of what you can do better than others with that strength.
- Ask yourself how important is that person who doesn’t like that body part. And should you even care! So just because one person doesn’t like it, it doesn’t mean that we are not attractive.
- Stop focusing on that one part and think of the other beautiful features that we have.
- Work on becoming a beautiful person from the inside. Have people love you for the person that you are and not just what they can see.
You become what you think of yourself. So think beautiful thoughts of yourself. Love yourself!
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