I wish I had a magic wand to get young people to believe you are good enough as you are. Not sure when low self-esteem in young people became a major issue but it certainly is a big challenge for a lot of young people today.
A vast number of young people struggle to see that they are equally as good as everyone else. People judge themselves against each other in lots of different ways:
- Do they have designer clothes?
- How many followers do they have on social media?
- What will people think if I get a question wrong in class?
Comparison
Young people and some adults, for that matter, look at other people and compare their appearance with them. Is this being fair to ourselves? We are all unique individuals, and this is what makes us special. If we were all the same, we would be a world of robots, how boring would that be?
We need to learn to embrace our uniqueness. As we are all different, we will all be good at somethings and not at others.
Social media
Social media gives everyone an insight into other people’s life behind closed doors. Some people post everything they eat, others post every time they are out. If their life is really that interesting, would they need to be sharing it on social media? They would be too busy enjoying it to be posting it all over social media.
People then judge how popular they are both the number of comments and likes that they receive on social media. Is this really a true reflection of how many people like us? With all the pressure of social media, is it surprising that young people struggle to ‘believe you are good enough as you are’?
What others think
Young people also worry about what other people think of them at school. I daren’t put my hand up in the class and answer a question because I might get it wrong. What is the consequence of getting it wrong? The other young people in the class might laugh?