I don’t think that people are ever truly happy with themselves.

It doesn’t matter what you see in the mirror, there is always something you don’t like.

If you have curly hair, you wish it was straight, If you have small boobs, you would love them to be bigger; heavy busted and you wish you were a B cup. We are never satisfied with what we have been given.

Chartreuse Creation

Sometimes there are things you can do about it. Sometimes it is just tough luck!

If you are slender and want to be curvier, you might work out and build some muscles. You might put a few pounds on or you may just wear some padded garments to give the illusion.

If you are fat (and I use that word with no insults attached) then you have fewer options. Buy bigger clothing, lose weight or look at surgical options.

Hair can be dyed, relaxed, straightened, curled and more.

Curling it

But why exactly do we do that to ourselves?

Looking in a mirror do you ever smile and say to yourself, ‘you look great today’ or ‘your hair really suits you’.

I know I don’t!

Whilst I would say I am a member of the body positivity brigade, I also know that it is really hard to love yourself all the time.

Rosey

This was something I found out myself recently when discussing measurements with a clothing company that I am doing some work with and a fact came up that I had never realised before.

My height is 60″ (exactly 5ft.)

My hips are also 60″

I am as tall as I am wide.

Bumps and rolls

And for some reason this has really shaken my self-confidence.

Badly.

But why? What does that number matter?

The logical, confident part of my brain says ‘so what?’. But the emotional part of my brain goes into a downwards spiral.  How the hell can I be as tall as I am round?

It has taken a few weeks of despairing about this to try and get my head around it. I don’t even know why it caused such consternation. But it had.

I have come to realise that whilst these figures are extreme, the way I look isn’t. I am in proportional all over. I can wear the dresses I love, without issue. I love my style and I am happy with the way I look.

And that is what body confidence is to me. Loving what I see when I look in the mirror.

Mirror image

It should be the only deciding factor; not the figures, the height, the width or the style.

Do I like me?

And the answer is that I really do.

Hippy!

That doesn’t mean I won’t have off days in the future. Or that 60″ figure will give me a wobble again. In fact, I expect when I think of it occasionally, it will still upset me.

But it doesn’t define me. It is just another part of me, like my tiny feet and my hyper-bendy fingers. They don’t matter in the slightest, so unless my hips stop me from wearing my favourite clothes, neither do they!

Plus Size photoshoot

Until then,

SPSG xxx