I grew up believing that love is conditional. I don’t blame my parents for this - and it turns out it wasn’t true - but I genuinely thought my parents would only love me if:

Does the above image offend you?

It offended Mattel, the makers of the infamous Barbie doll. The company pulled rank, sent Body Shop a cease and desist letter, effectively yanking the ad from circulation.

Granted, this all happened about five years ago. But the fact that the image above still appears on Facebook pages asking those who agree with The Body Shop to repost to their own page in a show of support, along with the fact that I got so fired up about the topic, tells us we still have a ways to go before society stops assigning worth based on body size alone.

Do you hear voices in your head that hold you back? Is The Gremlin of fear hissing, “You’ll never amount to anything!” or, “When are you gonna learn that ugly girls can’t do things like that?” or, “You’re not smart/pretty/talented/sexy/rich/wise enough!” when you start dreaming big?

Or maybe The Gremlin is spewing “You’ll never belong!” or, “What makes you think anybody would ever care about a book you would write?” or, “Get over yourself and know your place!” or, “Nobody will ever love you.”

So often, those voices stem from childhood. The Gremlin is just repeating things we heard from our parents or things we told ourselves when we were very young and impressionable.

And yet, those voices are powerful forces in our lives, and we may mistake them as truth, when they’re just bitter toxic lies spitting out of our minds like ammunition aimed at the jugular.