This one is for all my short women out there! 🙋🙋

There’s no doubt that diet culture has a lot to answer for. From disordered eating to body dysmorphia, the far-reaching consequences of the messaging that’s been shoved down our throats since we’re young can be devastating. The interesting thing is, more often than not, we’re not even aware on a conscious level of the effect that diet culture has had on our psyche. It’s informed our beliefs about ourselves and those around us in a way that we don’t even realize is happening. And I think this point is most salient that when we are discussing height.

Diet culture has ingrained us to believe that to be “beautiful” we need to be 5’10’’ with legs for days. All the supermodels and the girls we see in magazines embody that version of beauty. For someone who grew up as “the short girl”, I never saw my body shape or height presented as something that was beautiful. And as a dancer, I was surrounded by girls who had those long, lean legs. I wouldn’t go out because of how my body looked. I hated how I looked and used my insecurities as an excuse to stay in.

Today’s guest, Yasmine Al-Naimi, knows exactly how that feels. Growing up as the “small woman”, she has spent her life getting comments about her body. Comments like “You’re so small and cute”. She saw herself as short and stocky and experienced a sense of polarization of her height and her opinion of herself. After discovering a passion for nutrition and fitness, Yasmine now runs a page dedicated to helping petite women feel confident through nutrition, fitness, general mindset shifts around how their body looks and, most importantly, how it's beautiful.

We discuss why smaller women need to focus on lifting weights and strength training, how to navigate seasons of eating more and practice being confident as a petite woman. As Yasmin tells us, the key lies in finding ways to make your body work for you and give it the love and reverence it deserves. Find clothing that fits you rather than you fitting it (try the 26/28/30 inseam!), relate yourself to shorter powerful women so that will help you internalize and diversify your IG feed to find representation (celebrities like Scarlett Johannsson and Shakira are short AF and own it!).

Each of us has the choice to be a victim or empower ourselves and creating that change within ourselves will have a ripple effect. Focus on making yourself beautiful on the inside so you can radiate confidence on the outside.

Link to get on the waitlist for the body confidence code: 21 days of journal prompts, visualizations and affirmations to guide you on your body image journey: Body Confidence Code Waitlist (balancewithsam.com/body-confidence-code-waitlist)

Sam Altieri: Empowerment Coach (@samaltieri) • Instagram photos and videos

Morning Routine Opt-in balancewithsam.com/morning-routine