To think that, at 37, I have never looked better & to wish we would all STOP IT with the crappy threads about weight/looks etc & enjoy the fact WE ARE

[spiderslegs]

Really - I may have looked more dewy when I was 19 but I've never looked better. I have beautiful friends who moan about their arses/wrinkles but from what I can see, their husband's worship them. Woman in their prime are the most sexy things - please don't waste it with ridiculous worries.

Hmmm I'll have one of whatever you have had this evening.......

You are very lucky. I am about your age and have never looked worse.

I have always felt great about myself, even at my fattest/ thinnest moments in my life, my parents instilled a great confidence in me and it's the one thing I hope I pass on to my kids.

Lovely thread. I'm 26 and hope I feel like you when I'm your age.

I'm about 3 stone heavier than I was at 18 and I have stretchmarks and so on, but I am soooo much happier in my skin than I was then.

I always feel confident like you, but this generally coincides with being just before my annual sight test. My eyesight deteriorates every year, and when I get my new contacts I see the true ravagement of my hatchet-like face.

Moral of the story - just go through life every so slightly short sighted.

Mind you, I have never been thinner, and that (sadly) is making me very happy at the moment

I don't look better - but I care less about what other people think of me not looking better

Actually, what I wish was that when I was 16 and was actually very pretty indeed, I didn't go about in a fog of self loathing thinking I was fat and grotesque.

Youth and beauty is wasted on the young.

100% true zigzag - isn't it so fabulously liberating!

I don't look better than I did at 19.... not at all.

Yes, that's it GetOrf.

When I was younger I was always fretting about how shit I thought I looked, whereas now I do look shit I've accepted I'm nearing 40 and am just looking my age

It's kind of given me an excuse (in my head).

I know what you mean Getorff - my DD looks just like me (she's 13). Seeing how pretty she looks makes me realise I wasn't repulsive after all. Mind you, the opposite sex have never exactly beaten a path to my door so who am I kidding!

D'you know, I think what I like so much about this OP is that it's like being given permission to feel good about myself ... I really hate feeling as if I should be looking into the future and expecting to feel crap and ugly, as if it'd be somehow odd to expect to feel ok about not being 18 any more.

Thanks for that OP

When DD1 was having her hair cut not long ago WhatsWrong, I took a sharp intake of breath at how like me she looked.

She's 10 and lost her baby face and is now developing a more adult one, it took me by surprise and really freaked me out!

My dd is the same - she is 15 and beautiful, has such lovely golden skin and all that youth and prettiness.

Thank christ she is a lot more confident than I was at that age.

I found my old yearbook ages ago - looked at the photos of myself at the prom. Christ I spent that whole night sat down because I was convinced if I stood up people would point at my fat arse and laugh at my shoes. I looked bloody lovely.

I want to go back and shake my 16 year old self.

Funnily enough I am still vain and image obsessed to a degree, but to some extent don't give a shit. I am not the prettiest woman in the room, but I am not the ugliest, and I used to think I was the ugliest thing alive.

I was just getting pissed off about the rolls of flesh I can feel around my midriff (substantial) and read this - thank you!

Am still deading hot weather though...

OP - I thought that when I was 37. Now I'm nearly 43 and have aged 5 years in 6 months. So enjoy it while you may!

I'm 48 and I say hold on in there - I reckon I'm still holding it together.

I am 42. I am not as fit/slim/pretty as I might have been in my early 20s; life has been very tough and sad in the last (8?) years, and that & sleep/exercise deprivation has taken it's toll, however taking everything into account, I feel positive and confident about who I am today. I am in damn good shape after two sizable babies, and I still have a twinkle in my eye. Am way more confident than I ever was when I was much younger (not difficult!).
Am not really bothered about looks now - as long as I'm healthy, and my family are healthy, who cares!

I looked great at 37, when I hit 40 is when I started to age, albeit I still look young for my age.

STFU fabby

I don't look particularly great to be honest, but so what? It's just not a priority at the moment. My friends still like me anyway, and if anyone doesn't like my rather frazzled and overweight appearance that's their problem. In fact it's a good way of telling immediately who is a nice person - it rules out those who only give you the time of day if you're well-dressed, slim etc.

NO!

I'm not scared, I'm not supposed to be caring am I?

Right, we're not talking about our young selves, I look back & I was a radiant, plump mouthed sylph - yes as any fule kno, youth is wasted on the young.

But I also look at those photos & see a slightly smug, vacant, look.

I no longer have that. we no longer have that. We have a glint , a verve, something far more sexy.

I couldn't bare my legs as a youth, they were too 'pale', too 'skinny'.

I love my legs now. They are great.

& my face - no-one saw it without make-up before the age of 30.

They see it all the time now.

But I don't think I've ever been as attractive.

Quite right, Spider!!