“To be loved is to be changed” may sound like a simple and obvious phrase, but for many, it reflects the love they felt growing up, in romantic turbulence or through personal hardships. It highlights the avenues that have taught them unconditional love. People are taking to TikTok to explain their experience with being changed by love and how they have grown because of it.
This TikTok trend usually features a childhood stuffed animal, a pet that the user has grown up with, a romantic partner or even the user themselves. While this simple TikTok trend can be simply seen as cute, it also sparks a conversation about the importance of platonic, romantic and self-love. Moreover, it explains the beauty of age, and how love shines through even in our faded stuffed animals.
Platonic Love
Whether it’s your stuffed animal from birth, your lab who has grown up with you or your kindergarten best friend who has always stuck around, we feel a sense of platonic love – even in that aged and stained beer that was once pearly white. Through these different outlets, we have somewhere to place and store our love. We touch our raggedy doll and feel a sense of home and familiarity. We see a picture of our dog and feel an unconscious pull towards them. We talk to one of our long-time friends and feel free and comfortable.
We have aged since our love has blossomed, and so have they. Stains coat our beanie baby, hints of gray cover our dog’s snout and our best friend has grown into themselves. We bare age just like our platonic loves have. We wrinkle with smile lines and crow’s feet, marks on our skin left from love. From laughs, smiles and even tears. Our platonic love has been there in growth and stillness.
Romantic Love
Perhaps this person wasn’t your first romantic love, or even your second, but the one that showed you unconditional romantic love. Maybe this person was the first one to treat you with kindness, that helped you grow inside your relationship and outside of it. This person helped make you a better person, allowing you to foster your own love for yourself. This person could have even helped you heal from your past. Whether this love stays or goes, you were changed for the better because of them — and isn’t that what love is supposed to do?
Self-Love
Many TikTok users have been vulnerable about their journeys through self-love. They first show a photo of themselves in their darkest time — whether it be in the midst of an eating disorder, grappling with mental health problems or something else. Then they show a photo of them recovered and happy. These slideshows emphasize that pain does not last forever and that the true gateway to happiness is loving ourselves — our bodies, our minds and even our faults. We grow with each part of us that we decide to love.
To feel proper love can help us change into a better version of ourselves. These different forms of love show us what it means to be cared for, accepted and understood, giving us the ability to reflect the same love onto others. To be loved is to be changed, so give your stuffed animal, pet, significant other or best friend a hug, they deserve it!
Who is your “to be loved is to be changed”? Let us know by tagging us on Instagram @VALLEYmag with a picture!
