If you don’t love your appearance, you are not alone.
Almost a quarter of women aren’t comfortable in their skin, according to a new study of 2,000 women, and a third have cancelled social plans because of a body-confidence crisis.
The research was commissioned by Gillette Venus – a company that (until recently) predominately hired slim, white and hairless women to advertise its products. And while we might raise an eyebrow about a beauty brand jumping on the body-confidence revolution, the research did get us thinking.
If one in four women are not body-confident, that means a wonderful three in four are. So, we asked these women to reveal how they learned to love their bodies and their advice for others.
The sisterhood well and truly pulled through. More than 100 women replied on Twitter to share their tips, and here are just a few of the suggestions:
1. Embrace new outfits, from backless wedding dresses to shorts.
2. Focus on what your body can do, rather than what it looks like:
3. Surround yourself with the right people, from cool older ladies to pro-wrestlers.
4. Learn that we’re all built differently – and celebrate that difference.
5. Find a way to stop comparing yourself to others.
6. Shake off toxic lessons learned from “diet culture”.