Tips for Building Strong Self-Esteem as a Teen Girl
Healthy, confident adults start with building self-esteem in teens, and at Blossom Into A Better You in St. Pete, our goal is to provide teen girls and their families with the tools and skills they need to foster self-esteem. While it’s normal to find low self-esteem in teen girls due to societal influences and the transitional time period in life, it doesn’t have to be simply accepted. Steps can be taken to build or restore self-esteem, resulting in more empowered young women who can support one another. Let’s discuss a few simple ways to promote self-esteem in teenage girls.
Engage in Hobbies
Building self-esteem doesn’t always require a grand gesture. In fact, more often it comes in the slow and steady rhythms of the life we choose to live by design. Engaging in hobbies is one powerful way to build self-esteem because it instills confidence as you dedicate yourself to learning and enjoying a skill. Hobbies can help you form an identity and an awareness of yourself. For example, maybe you’ll find that you’re a creative, an athlete, an intellectual, or a devoted community member. Perhaps you’re all of the above! Exploring hobbies gives us an opportunity to know ourselves better, and the more rooted we become in who we are, the more likely we are to develop higher self-esteem. Trying new hobbies gives us the opportunity to challenge beliefs we may hold about ourselves. If someone who has never played a sport believes they are bad at sports and decides to try tennis, they may discover that even if they lack skill, they possess the dedication to practice and get better. It proves that they are not necessarily a bad athlete (challenges a past belief) and proves to themselves that they have what it takes to do something hard and get better at it. All positive steps toward increased self-esteem.
Contribute to Your Community
Although self-esteem is indeed a matter of self, stepping outside of yourself to be of service and assistance to others has internal benefits as well. Showing up for others allows you to see tangible proof that your efforts and care are valuable. This often delivers a sense of pride and awareness that what you do matters and that you have the ability to create good things in the world. An additional benefit is that, often, people begin showing up for you in return as well. Building self-esteem in teens by encouraging them to contribute to their community offers double benefits by improving their internal feelings about themselves, and bettering the community they are a part of.
Moderate Your Social Media Use
As wonderful and entertaining as social media can be, the evidence becomes clearer each day that too much social media is extremely detrimental. Mental health outcomes, including self-esteem, decline as social media use increases, and teens are exposed to unrealistic or even false content. When it comes to self-esteem and teen girls, social media can be especially harmful due to the increasing use of filters, body editing, and even AI, which perpetuate unrealistic expectations of appearance. Social media is also responsible for increasing anxiety in teens due to feelings of inadequacy and social isolation. While social media can be beneficial for learning things, connecting with those with shared hobbies and interests, and even for entertainment, when consumed in excess, it can cause anxiety in teen and worsen their self-esteem. For insight on how to deal with anxiety in teens, read our blog Tips For Dealing with Anxiety as a Teenager.
Speak Kindly to Yourself and Others
The way you speak to yourself can totally reframe the way you see yourself. It works when you speak kindly about yourself and, if you’re not careful, it works when you speak negatively about yourself too. While our feelings aren’t always in our control, what we do with them and the words we choose to express are in our control. When you make repeated, conscious choices to use kind words about yourself, eventually you begin to believe them and your self-esteem begins to reflect it. When it comes to speaking kindly about others, choosing to do so affirms the type of person you, hopefully, want to be. When you are proud of who you are and how you speak and behave, it’s easier for your self-esteem to flourish.
Prioritize Caring for Yourself
One of the most important ways to foster self-esteem is to invest in yourself. Taking the time to care for yourself reinforces the idea that you are worthy of care. Taking time to move your body, get your blood pumping, breathe deeply, and get adequate rest are all very easy ways to support positive self-esteem while making sure you feel good as well. Staying hydrated, getting sunlight, and connecting with nature are all so beneficial to allowing us to reconnect with ourselves and remember what’s important. From this mental space, it’s easier to take action on all the suggestions listed above to work on self-esteem. Once you have the basics down, there can also be benefits in exploring your expression through clothing and hairstyles, and other self-care activities. Remember, the type of care is less important than the fact that it’s real and relevant to you. Getting your nails done isn’t self care if you don’t care about having nails. Don’t let external influences, which are usually designed to make you spend money, convince you that you have to do self care a certain way. If it’s something that benefits your body or mind and it makes you feel good, it can be self care!
These suggestions are all great ways to begin building self-esteem. If doing all of them feels overwhelming, don’t worry about it! The good news is that you can see benefits from just picking one of these suggestions and staying consistent with it. If you’re looking for support as a teen, or are the parent of a teen in need of support, we’d love to offer assistance through therapy at Blossom Into A Better You. Please contact us today to schedule an appointment.
