I see this a lot on this board, women reaching late 30's and having a bit of a crisis of confidence.
It's probably a combination of young children, a creeping feeling that you're not 'young, young' any more, and yes, the body does evolve, the early signs of aging can be noticeable.
Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold!
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.
It's almost as though Yeats was writing about early middle-aged women (I often think that's why Joan Didion latched onto The Second Coming as a theme in her mid-30s).
I do digress.
I think mid to late 30s are a difficult time for women in terms of finding a place and a role for themselves, often subsumed by motherhood, combined with career demands, physical changes, loss and gain, and it's very easy to suddenly turn around and ask, 'Who the fuck am I now, where did she go?'
I know the word frumpy is devisive on this board, but I think it's an important one to discuss, because yes, it may be rooted in misogyny, but it's also a frame of mind very many women find themselves in because it is about a loss, a ceding, a sublimation, from one state to another.
And that's where we find ourselves. When we recognise what's been taken.
I actually did start this post to talk about clothes. But it's not about clothes really, is it? I can't tell you what to wear so you don't feel frumpy. I have absolutely no idea what you look like or how you present yourself.
I can tell you though, that once you rediscover your essential self, you won't be slouching towards Bethlehem, you'll be fucking skipping there.