WOMEN BE PROUD OF WHO YOU ARE

Sometimes it’s hard to be a woman as Tammy Wynette once told us and nowadays even more so.

If you’re not a vision of airbrushed perfection with the look of thousands of other identikit Barbie dolls you’re made to feel like you’re not worth much regardless of whether you’re an university graduate , big corporate boss or Olympic medal winner.

It would probably seem odd to a bystander that a short, slightly pudgy thirty something mum would have any advice to offer to the likes of the above but please just give me a chance to prove you wrong.

The girl in the photo there once thought she was odd and awkward. Some of her actions probably did little to dispel that, I mean you try telling a class of fellow teenage girls that your perfect man would be  Dirk Bogarde in the doctor in the house films when their idols are Bros and New Kids on the Block, it’s a real tumbleweed blowing across the scene moment, believe me.

That girl at the time got it into her head that she was fat because fashion dictated in the early 90s that the super waif/heroin chic look was where it was at. She failed to see how amazing her hourglass figure looked in that frock as she was more occupied with not being able to fit her frankly fairly impressive chest into the tight fitting shirts her skinnier pals liked to sport. She is also unaware in that photo that in 8 years from now she will be wishing she had that figure back that she yearns for the days when she had just the one chin and no overhanging ex baby belly that could double up as Santa’s sack.

She will spend so many of her years thinking if only she was more prettier, less fat and not quite so weird that maybe more people would accept her , changing the way she is for others to fit in while never feeling like she is quite herself.

Then she will hit her late thirties and think “you know what, stuff it “(or slightly more ruder words to that effect) and flicks the proverbial two fingered salute at any thoughts like that.

She embraces the woman she’s become and lays to rest the girl that she used to be and no more lets anyone or anything dictate to her what perfection looks like.

She uses the contents of her slightly awkward and odd head to get herself noticed and people sit up and start to listen, which sure beats worrying about the size of her bum.

So I say to the likes of Rebecca Adlington and those of you (including all the fella’s as well) who despite whatever achievements you’ve made in life look into the mirror and don’t like what they see...

Be proud of yourself just the way you are.

Nobody is perfect, nobody needs to be.

 GIRL FROM THE NECK DOWN -MEDWAY MESSENGER COLUMN