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?

Youth is wasted on the young!

I ocassionally look a pre-baby photos of myself and wander wtf I was thinking because I genuinely thought I was chubby. I was a size 8 and 5ft6. My legs were like bean poles. I couldnt my pre-baby trousers over my hips now.

My dad used to quote that!

Yes! I was gorgeous, had an amazing figure and had no idea. Constantly compared myself and thought I looked like dog shit which I do now after children and reaching my 40s. Wish I had some insight back then. Its my mission now to make my young and beautiful relatives feel just that and tell them often!

@SylvesterTheCat

Youth is wasted on the young!

It’s soooo true!!

No way, just been to my relatives house with hideous photos of me in various stages of growing up everywhere I turned like a horror movie of my past self. Makes me cringe so much, why didn't anyone tell me! Even my wedding photo is hideous.

My uncle always used to make jokes about how I was bottom-heavy, you could use my arse to park a bike etc. I was a competitive swimmer so I was always going to have a chunky bottom half. There’s a full length photo someone took poolside just as I’d got out after winning a race, and I look amazing. No make up, swim cap and goggle marks around my face, but I look lean, healthy, physically powerful and so happy. Five years later my mum died, then my dad after that, and my brother last year. I do look at that version of me and wish I could have that carefree version back, just for a day.

Absolutely! I was so slim in my early teens but remember absolutely hating my stomach and starving myself often.

I watched last year's video recordings of Xmas the other day, and remarked how slim I was then too. I'm 6 months pregnant with DC3 currently so feel like a whale. I certainly didn't feel slim last year at all and I know won't have felt I was when watching it back then either.

[quote ClaudiusTheGod]**@NeverDropYourMooncup* Waste of film, apparently*

Who said this? I’m sorry you had to hear that.[/quote]
Mother, then ex.

I might have well ceased to exist aged 7. There certainly wouldn't have been any way of finding me on a Police appeal had I gone missing.

Not in the sense of being objectively attractive because I never have been, but I'm always struck by the youthful freshness of my complexion and photos I thought of as unflattering back then look much better than what's in the mirror now!

Yea, I was pretty and slim, but didn’t know it. I wish I’d had the nerve to try for the bad boy I loved.

Recently found a picture of me aged 21. I looked cracking. Probably a size 10. I was incredibly fit and active and hadn't had children yet.

Quite happy where I am now though too, but it takes a LOT of exercise to maintain my figure now!

Sadly, no. With the best will in the world, the photos of me as a youngster show a chubby and awkward person with bad skin and poor dress sense. The kindest person would say younger me was rather homely. I feel sad for younger me and people wasted no time in telling her she wasn’t good enough. I only started to bloom in my 40s and to look really good only very recently. I’ve naturally shed a lot of weight with age and the meno’ but that was brutal on my skin and aged my face - I’ve had ‘work’, no regrets, to be able to feel happy about the face in the mirror after half a lifetime of waiting is huge.

I still remember showing my DH an ancient video of me. I was caught as a 'vox populi' by the local BBC news once, first thing in the morning with a hangover when I was a student, so naturally I taped it when it came on later that day. At the time I thought I looked dreadful.

Watching it about 12 years later with my DH he said how lovely I looked - my skin and hair looked better than I could by then achieve with hours of careful attention.

Even that was now 10 years ago. I don't know if I've still got the tape - I still have a VCR but I don't think I'd dare to watch my 21 year old self on video now I'm nearing 50!

Far from amazing but I was not a fat uggo like I thought I was.

I am now though 🎻

so sorry to those who were abused by family members.

But let's all buy this woman a drink:
"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!"

here's to breaking that cycle ladies....