Famous and attractive women who have 'flaws'.

[Thomcat]

Please help.

My darling sister has horrificly bad OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). She also has keloids. Keloids are basically a greatly enlarged scar that projects above the skin surface. A scar usually becomes flat. Unfortunately, sometimes scars enlarge to form firm, smooth, hard growths called keloids.
My sister has about 8 on her back and due to her ocd she has the most awful self loathing, no self asteem whatsoever. I won't bore you with how this affects her, every day of her life, paranoid that peope have seen them and so on.

Anyway, I need to talk to her and try and do something to help, my mum is in pieces and my poor sister is just only going backwards.

Anyway, as part of my talk I want to point out beautiful women that also have scars, disfigurements etc.

I can only think of Mrs McCartney having lost a leg.
Who else is there that I can point out to her?

I hope she's on the right dose, though from the sounds of it she has probably tried most things.
I can understand how you feel. Watching someone you love dearly suffering from OCD is unbearable. It's so misunderstood.
Best of luck TC.

The word flawed is all wrong in general tbh, sorry, just didn't know what else to say. My friend has burns all over his face and arms and I would never consider him as flawed.

I really am so appreciative of your posts, thank you all so much.

Amanda Mealing, that's the breast cancer survivor I was thinking of (awful typo in my first post).

As an aside my DH is planning on trying Bio Oil as many of his survivor group have found it really good for keloid scarring. Might be another avenue for your sister to look at.

I think part of the problem is that most celebrity photos are heavily retouched or at the very least cleverly lit/made up. So, it's hard to know exactly what imperfections may be there - great pains are taken to hide the flaws.

Would it make a difference to tell her that many of us who are mums have stretch marks and/or caesarian scars? "Perfect" bodies aren't very common once a person has lived a bit and actually used their bodies....but I'm sure you've told her that if you've been dealing with it for so long.

Will keep thinking to see if I can come up with other examples...

maybe minor disfigurements(sp) or imperfections ...I am a very flawed person but you could look at me naked and see nothing wrong

Thats a really good way of putting it Earlybird.

Will keyloid scar they can be cut out and remade to look thinner silver lines a bit like stretch marks.

TC, give your mum a big hug from me - she's lovely and I hate to think of her so upset

\link{http://www.ocduk.org/6/family.htm\info for you and your mum}

hope this helps

\link{http://www.beautyis.com/index.php?&MMN_position=1:1\Beauty Is..Every Woman} site.

I've not had time to study the site but it might be worth taking a look TC

Just so you know I'm far too tired and emotional for this right now so if i's ok with you i'm gonna go but i'll be back in the am to read your suggestions and links and i'll pass this onto my mum as well. Thanks so, so much, really, thank you, xx

Will keep looking, sweetheart - and see you soon xxx

jellyjelly - keloids can't normally be fixed by surgery, the surgery itself will just cause more scarring.

Hypertrophic scars, which are very similar, often can.

Not a woman, but one of the most "flawed" and striking people in the public eye is Seal...and he just married one of the world's most beautiful women - who obviously found him attractive.

Halle Berry has type 1 diabetes. She says it has given her the strength to do what she has done in life.

Can think of model (and Salman Rusdie's wife/gf) Padma Lakshmi who has a large scar on her arm.

Also singer Gabrielle with her eye patch.

My DH has OCD, all to do with obsessive thoughts rather than complusions, it has been very difficult at times to cope with. Really sorry that it's so bad with your sister

email sent tc. night night

gail porter has severe alopecia, at the moment she's entirely bald.

Padma Lakshmi is hugely attractive and succesful and has stevens johnson syndrome and a 7 inch scar on her forearm

ALL women have flaws .. that's why retouchers have jobs (someone posted a website with before and afters . will try to find in a sec)

anyhoo ..I think you'll find it difficult convincing someone just by having a talk that their obsession means nothing .. or is more minimal than it seems .. although I understand your desperation (I think)

have you thought about finding good pictures of her and asking her what she sees in the picture ... maybe mix them up with pictures of other people who have flaws but are deemed beautiful

personally I think Barbara Streisand is amazing .. she has all the features of an ugly woman (sorry but she does) but somehow some of her shots she just looks gorgeous (DH doesn't agree but I think its true)

am rambling ..

\link{http://homepage.mac.com/gapodaca/digital/bikini/bikini1.html\retoucher site}

link{http://www.glennferon.com/portfolio1/portfolio01.html\another}

Naomi Wolff wrote a book called the beauty myth .. maybe your sister would find it interesting

\link{http://www.glennferon.com/portfolio1/portfolio01.html\another}

\link{http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0099861909/qid=1147521835/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/026-6157592-6291613\The Beauty Myth}

Yvette Fielding has vitiligo. Posh Spice and Cameron Diaz both have terrible skin.

wow Twig, that is shocking!

The Beauty Myth is a brilliant book, I would suggest everyone reads it.