Do you find old photos of yourself and think “I was amazing not ugly after all!”

[CovidisaThiefofJoyandcandoone]

I am emptying my mum’s house and finding photos of my 80s teenage self.

Oh the angst I wasted thinking I was ugly and unattractive with no boobs!

I had an absolutely beautiful body (could flaunt my belly and had wide hips and long shapely legs) with a young face on top. You don’t see the zits. The imperfect jawline and adequate hair are an irrelevance. The broad shoulders are neither here nor there.

Thing is though, my friends mostly look great too - I’m focussed on their beautiful hair/smiles, etc.

But I was so unhappy so often about my appearance and some nasty men told me I was unattractive from time to time (or more often I was just overlooked by men in favour of boobier/better-haired friends).

I’m not alone in being shocked at the difference between perception and photographic evidence am I?

Yes! I was beautiful in my teens/twenties but had no idea.

Maybe when I’m sixty I’ll realise how beautiful I am now 😂

You are not wrong. And I bet you are still fifty times more beautiful than you think you are. Amazing how we women are encouraged to look for fault in our appearance, massive industries are built on it and millions trousered due to our insecurities.

Yes. I was really pretty as teenager/ early 20s plus really slim, spent the whole time feeling ugly & fat, and was too shy as a result!

Now I'm 45 and 3 stone heavier but much more confident, just wish I'd had this confidence as a younger woman.

Amazing how we women are encouraged to look for fault in our appearance, massive industries are built on it and millions trousered due to our insecurities

This a million times.

Youth is beautiful in itself.

Oh yes. I thought I was an ugly little kid too - but I was bloody cute as hell! As a teen I wasn’t too bad either. Now I’m an old bat…

Totally amazed that I wasn't fat! I've made up for that now though. 😢

Nope.

Mainly because I was 'so hideous/fat/stupid looking' that there are no photographs of me. Waste of film, apparently.

Yes I look at photos from when I was teenager/early 20's and I looked great. At the time I was obsessed with my weight and thought I had a huge stomach, I was so slim though! I think the early 00's and low rise jeans really messed with my confidence at the time!

I find waiting an hour before looking at a photo helps. I've always had 0 self confidence. My twin sister is beautiful- and we look very alike but I can never say her beauty in me.

I knew I was attractive because men tried it on relentlessly but I do don’t have any real confidence. I hated attention and fixated on random stuff like my weird knees.
I’m fat and old now and luckily no one gives me a second look.

Yes! I remember crying my eyes out before nights out because I was fat and hideous and looked awful in every outfit I tried on. I had such a beautiful figure! I am several stone heavier now but much happier

For me it was when I had my daughter. Seeing her at 9 months old, looking a bit like me, I suddenly realised that I was not horrifically ugly after all!

I had an ED during my teens and early 20s. Constantly worried about how fat my belly was.20 years, 2 children and a stone heavier I'd love that (supposedly fat) belly!
However in my 20s I feel my face was actually a little bit chubby and I prefer it now.

Same op, and how I wasn't fat either. I wish I could have seen myself then through my eyes now. I might have had a different attitude to things.

I wish I was as fat as I thought I was when I was in my twenties!

@NeverDropYourMooncup Waste of film, apparently

Who said this? I’m sorry you had to hear that.

Nope. I look at them and think that I should never have left the house

@SadSplinter

Nope. I look at them and think that I should never have left the house

I'm the same. Either I was an ugly graceless lump for most of my teens or I was totally unphotogenic. I recently took possession of a load of old photos and my children thought they were hilarious. I've improved a lot with age.

Growing up, my mum regularly told me I was fat. I think it was her way of making sure I never wore revealing clothes. So it was no surprise that I had really low self-esteem, and hated my body. I could weep when I look back at old photos of myself in my 20s. I had a gorgeous body, lovely hair, pretty face and glowing skin. If I had known that I might not settled for the first man to tell me I was beautiful.
Two kids later, I am several stone overweight and would kill to look even a bit like I used to. It's why I tell my daughter every day how beautiful she is.

I found a photo of myself on my 21st birthday recently (I’m 39) and it made me very sad that at the time I thought I was huge and unattractive. I wasn’t, obviously. I’m about 7 stone heavier now and it makes my blood boil that society, the beauty industry, peer pressure etc made me believe I needed to worry about how I looked.

I wish I could go back in time and have a word with myself. I’ve spent years on diets and punishing my body.

The one thing I’ve taken from this hindsight though is to appreciate and be compassionate to myself now about how good I still look, despite weight gain and pregnancy, and to appreciate my body and my relative youth. We are so hard on ourselves.

I don’t look back and think I look particularly good but that youthful bloom is impossible to fake.

There are a few awkward photos of me as a teen but in many I do now think I looked pretty, yes. I try and remember that now when I see a current ‘ugly’ photo of myself!

I found a picture at my mum's house of me and my nan on holiday. It brought back lots of lovely memories but wow we both smoking hot back then!

Yes! I hated how I looked though. I used to get upset before nights out. Now I'm fat I'm much happier because there's no "Do I look fat" about it- I am and it doesn't matter.

There is only one photo of me, as I hate having photos taken. (Also, it was an expensive palaver in the 1990s).

According to my mum, I had short fat legs, a sullen mouth, weird nose, odd eyebrows, thin and flat hair, a fat bum, walked like a man, too pale skin tone etc.

The one photo of me looks like a young Winona Ryder! I know I had a 24 inch waist (I started measuring it after I had meningitis when it went down to 18 inches!!) but have always felt quite chunky.