When I was younger, in my teens and 20s, I was called 'very pretty and 'cute' a lot, mostly by men I was dating or who wanted to date me and by randoms who saw me in the street. Never, 'beautiful', that's come funnily enough in my 30s/40s/50s (early 50s!) if at all. I was very shy in my early teens (13 onwards) and used to blush like mad if I walked past boys playing football in our local park. I also grew into my looks, I wore glasses up until age 12 when the eye specialist said I didn't need to wear them during the day, only for reading and TV. I also had long hair and at age 13 got in chopped off into a Princess/Lady Di layered bob. I turned as I was told from an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan (ha!). I did have full lips too and some boys if they didn't get a reaction from me would call me 'rubber lips' and a wide/high forehead which got 'spam'.
The other day, I was walking through a local park on my way to meet a friend for coffee, but about a 15-20 minute walk from where I live, past an open gym machine part of the park and I saw a couple of guys doing exercises, one more than the other! I glanced over, partly as I was curious if they were doing PT work, then one man made a comment about 'come over and say hi, don't just watch!' but with a smile, and because I had time, I thought, ok, why not, so went over and had a 15-20 minute chat with them both. As I left, one of the guys smiled at me and told me 'you're pretty, you have a beautiful smile' which was totally unexpected and I just said 'thanks!'.
I had on a black sweatshirt with a lighter colour tiger print head and a slogan (in black) on, black leggings, Sainsburys Tu white and yellow trainers, black Clarks rucksack and black Uniqlo cordoroy crossbody bag and some earrings but nothing flashy, also some bright blue mirrored aviator style sunglasses. I had nothing else on, apart from an old Tiffany silver ring, and a sapphire/diamond white gold artisan ring (made by a jeweller in Spitalfields, sapphire is my birthstone). I did have light makeup on but minimal and my hair was sort of freshly washed but not styled, it had just dried naturally.
For the past 2-3 weeks I've taken time off work which I sometimes don't take, a well deserved short holiday and had some time abroad (whilst still MN'ing, ha!), so what I think shone through with me, is I was relaxed and happy, taking in the sun (it was a warmer, sunny day). I've also noticed that since my 30s but more noticeably probably actually late 30s/40's onwards - I gave off a sassiness, don't give a F confidence. I'm not bothered if I turn heads or not, at all. That day, I did turn heads (you know when you notice it, that you're looking good, definitely not every day these days, far from it!), maybe it was what I was wearing.
I recall another time, this time last year, I'd lost a stone in weight with Weightwatchers, I was dressed in a Hush dragon t-shirt, with Sainsburys black/grey jeans with a tie waist, not much makeup on and hair not 'done' and sitting in a car with my SIL (always looks good but not glam, understated beauty!). We'd just parked up next to a park and were waiting for DB to come along with my DNephew in his car and his friend and his son.
Suddenly I noticed a man sitting opposite us in a white 4x4, who was younger than me (prob mid 30s?), blond, tanned, good looking, who slowly and deliberately took off his t-shirt to show a fully ripped tanned muscular torso, all in my eyeline but I was in the passenger seat. I was trying not to look (not normally my type) but I did, it was a good sight for sore eyes!
As I got out of the car, he suddenly got out of his car, approached us, asked if it was ok to park here (he didn't know apparently despite there being signs!) and offered to buy us both a coffee if we fancied it from a cafe around the corner (the park cafe would've done but was quite a walk away from where we were). He paid me loads of attention whilst we walked there, and was trying to flirt and we swapped numbers but I was dating my boyfriend at the time (fairly new relationship though), so I passed on him that time and I did think he was a tad young for me. He did say 'you're stunning' in a text to me though after we'd swapped numbers, which was very sweet of him.
And there've been times when I've been all dressed up, hair tonged, fake tan, full makeup, nice outfit and I've got barely a second glance too. So just goes to show!