The march starts at 8am on the 31st January and will last for 48 hours. All the avatars that people have made will be then ‘marched’ along the websites of partner websites. Of the partner wesites signed are Facebook, The Sun and Barry M. There are many more listed on the website.

Times will be made available as to when avatars will march through each website so you can try and spot you! I have made the Daily Waffle a bright purple avatar with aerial ears with a placard saying “Help, don’t hurt!”. If you see it be sure to let us know.

I have signed up to The Big March for the last few years on my personal blog. It’s something so quick and easy to do to make a difference. Sign up now and you can wander around the park with many partner website tents offering competitions and information.

As my DW writing colleague Sera said in her personal bullying story “What happens now stays with you through life”.

Make a change!

Follow Beat Bullying on twitter @BeatBullying

Follow Beat Bullying on facebook facebook.com/Beatbullying

Open. What did you imagine? Gorgeous eyes, flawless skin, toned body, slim figure, nice height, straight teeth and a smile to die for? That’s what most people imagine when they’re asked to think of perfection. Something beautiful.

And the reason why some of us think like this is because perfection is shoved in our face all the time. Take this photo for instance:

A photo of a tall, slender and extremely beautiful model. A photo that makes a lot of women wish they looked as beautiful as this woman, that makes them wish they fitted into that stunning blue dress; a photo that makes us hate our flaws. “She’s perfect, why can’t I be?”

The media always uses beautiful people for their adverts. Big brands use glamorous women and tall, dark and handsome men. You don’t see a chubby, spotty woman in a galaxy advert. You don’t see a short, gawky man in an expensive perfume ad.
Pop stars and celebrities are all beautiful. It seems that to make it in the spotlight, you have to be good to look at.

The worst part of this is, that society has now begun to use this thinking too. More and more people are getting skinnier, because it is more ‘beautiful’. Instead of embracing their flaws, people just try to change themselves to fit in with what society thinks is beautiful.

I watched a program a couple of months ago, where they took pictures of girls of different ages, then photo shopped them. There were nine different photos, and only one was the original; the rest had been photo shopped to make the girls either wider or slimmer. They would not know which photo was original, and which were photo-shopped.

One by one they brought the girls in and made them choose their favourite and their least favourite. There was a six year old girl there, and her favourite photo was a picture of her six times smaller than she was in real life. After choosing her favourite, she pointed at the original and said, “I look really fat in that one!”

When asked what was wrong with the fact she was bigger in that photo, she replied, “But no one fancies a fat girl.”

That girl was six years old. She shouldn’t be worrying about her weight. She should be having fun as a child. Obviously somewhere, an idea has been put into her head that being fat is a bad thing, a repulsive thing. The worst part is that she called her original self fat- that she instantly picked out her flaws and put herself down as if it was perfectly normal.

The amount of eating disorders in teenagers is rapidly increasing, and crazy diets are more and more common now. Young people are constantly shown pictures of what ‘perfection’ is like, and this makes us look at ourselves and wonder why we can’t be perfect. We get good grades, we’re not bad people- why can’t we be pretty?

Society has got this image of pure beauty, and it seems as if anything that is different from their definition of beautiful just isn’t good enough. Not everyone can be as beautiful as that model in the first picture, in fact most people aren’t even close to her beauty. So why aren’t we good enough?

Look at this photo now:

Is this perfection? Is that what society wants us to be? Is this beautiful?

This photo is an extreme case of an eating disorder, and although it seems very bad, there are a lot of people who look just like this girl, because they want to be beautiful- to be flawless.

Perfection isn’t everything, no matter what the media says. Flaws fill in the cracks of who we are, they are what make us unique and truly beautiful. What have we done to change the view on beauty and perfection?

What have we done to ourselves?

We are beautiful people- everyone of us. Even you. I think we all need to be reminded of what beauty is. It’s not just what one person looks like, or how one person pictures it. It’s made up of a whole lot of looks and thoughts. What society says is beautiful, isn’t the only kind of beautiful.

Remember that next time you look into the mirror and sigh because your legs aren’t slim enough, or your hips are too wide. Remember you are beautiful; believe that you are beautiful.

Smile today, smile tomorrow, smile forever- because you are something beautiful.

One of the best things about Yellowcard for me is that their lyrics tell a story, but with a melody attached. Unlike most popular songs from this generation, which are only about getting wasted, sleeping with anyone, or swearing pointlessly, each Yellowcard song is carefully crafted to an emotion or memory.

Some of my favourite songs would be Believe, Life of a Salesman or How I Go.

Believe is about being strong, and believing. It’s a song to listen to when all hope is gone, just to make you remember everything will be OK. It’s about the 9/11 attacks and how people risked their lives to save other people. My favourite lyrics of the song would be, “Everything is going to be alright, be strong, believe.”

Life of a Salesman is about a son wanting to be like his father when he grows up. It’s about a son who promises to stay the same and always believe in his dad. It’s a great song with a fast beat and a great tune which sticks in your head.

Ever seen the film Big Fish, about a father who loves stories and a son who forgot how to listen to them? How I Go is a song believed to be bases around that film. It’s put in the perspective of the father,who sings about all the magical adventures he’s been on. My favourite line from this song is,”Son I am not everything you thought that I would be, but every story I have told is part of me.”

The song is sang as a duet with harmonies intertwined with the original melody throughout the song.

Although not being a well known band, I’d highly recommend anyone going to listen to them. Even if it’s not your cup of tea, at least give them a try. Their official website is www.yellowcardrock.com, they also have a FaceBook page (because let’s face it, these days, who DOESN’T have a FaceBook page?!) which you can look up too.

Happy Listening (: