Women must learn to accept themselves, from their bodies to their abilities, a speaker said Wednesday night as a part of a Healthy Loving Week program.

Natalie Croll, assistant director for the Office of Health Promotion and Education, said that women must accept their limits.

"The biggest gift of being human is that we don't have to be perfect," Croll said. "No matter what we do, no matter what our faults are, no matter how we see ourselves, we are just because we are."

Croll spoke to an audience of mostly women in her lecture "Women: Learning to Love Ourselves." Audience members were hesitant in answering Croll's questions about their physical characteristics and their abilities.

"What about you makes you beautiful as a women?" Croll asked.

Croll said the purpose of the program was to make audience members laugh at themselves and admit their good qualities.

"Our society tells us not to brag. I want you to brag about yourself," Croll said.

Carol Zimmerman (senior-management) said Croll made her think about herself. "I learned that I can give myself credit for what I do well," she said.

Society in general teaches women to not have self-esteem, Croll said. But women should accept themselves and their abilities instead of looking for society's affirmation, she said.

"Something in our society tells us we cannot be good at things or that we should be great at them," Croll said. "I'm human -- I succeed and fail."

She said the media contribute to the problem of low self-esteem.

The media paint a picture of the perfect woman, Croll said, but no woman is perfect or has the perfect body. Croll said the average size of women's clothing is a 14 -- not the size 7 people usually assume.

"It's not really fair," Croll said, adding that most people first notice facial expressions, not bodies.

Because of society and the media, women tend to view themselves as inferior to others, especially their friends, Croll said.

"We have to give ourselves the rights we give our friends," Croll said. "If everyone in the world faded away, we'd be stuck with one person. Yet, we rate our friends better than ourselves."

"Somewhere along the line, I realized I had to give myself the credit I always gave my friends," Croll said, adding that she has only recently learned to depend on herself -- rather than others -- for esteem.

As one of the few men in the audience, Kip Woodring (freshman-communications) said the program made him more aware that low self-esteem is a serious problem affecting women. However, he said that he could apply what he learned to his own self-esteem.

"Learning to appreciate yourself has no gender boundaries," Woodring said.