Why is it that almost no one is happy with themselves, physically? People always complain that they dislike their hair, skin, nose eyes, voice etc. it's natural to not be happy with yourself, but I don't know why? The thing I find wierd about it, is even if I disliked say my nose, if someone else had my nose than I wouldn't take notice that I didn't like it, know what I mean?

Right. I think the some of the reasons people may dislike themselves is because of what society dictates. If they say such and such type of hair is beautiful, but this kind is ugly, lots of people will believe it and go out and buy hair products.

I know this might sound silly but I actually favor my face. I don't think my face is ugly. But I do want to loose a few lbs. Okay 40 lbs. But hey I put them there right? So really to be unhappy you are making yourself miserable. Embrace your nose( big noses ae hot because I love any nose really) big ears are hot( but I love ears) chins are hot but I love chins. Everyone has a stigma about what is in. Big nose - who cares? I would rather have a big nose then freakin be in pain all my life or die at a young age. Or even not love. I would rather be fat then not have food to eat at all. We should embrace what your Momma gave ya! Just think what if you always focused on the negative then you would frown which causes more wrinkles.

I used to be one of those people that wanted to change nearly everything about thier bodies, untill I was in a car accident and was lucky I could walk again ect...that was a wake up call for me.

Now I thank god that I have my body still in one peice and there is NOTHING that I want to change, as I have come to appreciate what the good lord has given me.

When I look inthe mirror now, I tell myself there is nothing wrong with me and hope that I remain that way

A lot of people are picky about themselves. Thank you, media. It's funny because despite if people tell you are beautiful, you'll always have that personal opinion of yourself.

Becky's mom, I don't know what the problem with your looks were but your face is freaking amazing. I think you are gorgeous and the parts of your body I seen in pics were not bad either.

It is difficult to be accepting of yourself. Just look at photographs of yourself. But that is what people view all the time! They don't have a problem with the photos of you. They love you for who you are. However loving ourselves is difficult, because we judge ourselves so harshly.

But once you find love inside yourself for you, love can flow to all other areas of your life. And you find that love is 'inside' of yourself, rather than taken from somewhere else.

Aww thanks 101 for your kind comments but I had went through a period of my life always looking in the mirror and thinking man I would love a face lift I would love to look like such n such, I was once kinna chubby and it depressed me.

I used to get all the fat jokes from my brother years ago and although I laughed them off like I normally do as I can take the odd jab on the chin, but deep down I was sad by it all and thought ok enough with the self pity, its high time I did something about my looks by starting with my weight problem, so I did just that and slimed way down and when people began to say how attractive I looked it gave me more confidence, then thats when I thought hmmm I need a face lift..

No matter how many time I glanced in the mirror I always managed to find something not right, it was only untill I winded up in a car accident and nealy lost the use of my legs and was badly hurt, that was one hell of a wake up call and now I look at myself differently and I am thankful that I have my body in one peice and still have my health.

About my looks, I never saw myself as 'all that' and I don't think I ever will.

I don't see others as being ugly for their looks, to me what makes a person ugly is their personality, so if you have a rotten personality then in my eyes that just ugly.

yele: don't "blame the media". creating the 'ideal' image of what a man or woman is has always been part of the human condition. the media is merely exploiting what has always been there.

man, the animal, must compete for resources, mates most notably. man, the social animal, must compete for status within the social group. Firstly, when there is a successful individual, people will incorrectly associate attributes of that individual with his success and then desire them for themselves. Secondly, some attributes do show a benefit to survival (at the most basic level) and are desired by mates to increase the likelihood of offspring survival.

Self-awareness allows for one to think about the above, and to take an active role in ensuring your desired outcome. However, when you don't 'measure up' to the standards the social group you belong to, the opposite effect can occur. Since you are 'stuck with' the inferior attributes, you will try to diminish them or hide them as much as possible. The result of the conscious effort to overcome a perceived 'non optimal' attribute is insecurity.

'Cause we ain't perfect, and we're too darn stubborn to admit it without a fight.

True, but you still have the media to blame, even if it's partial. You can't escape that.

Why can't we see ourselves as all perfect, yet different? Absolutely no-one has the exact same bodyshape or facial features. So how can we compare ourselves to super-models?

AHA I hear ya...so we are ALL perfect in our own lil ways.

Everyone has their own idea as to what a perfect body should be like, some love the slim, fat, muscle type ect but each to our own.

Good point Rowan

I agree with Yelekiah it is the media etc, which dictates to us what we should look like. Perhaps it has always been in our nature. But over the last 50yrs it has started to get out of hand, and that is down to the media.

Correct..!

I just saw a quick glimpse of a girl who weighs just 5 stone (70lbs) and was told she looked so perfect for a model WTF at 5 stone...I thought this is f***ed up surely!!

I'm sure this is a simple relationship to the fact that once you realize you are out of balance, you will want to take steps to correct this. If you dwell on your physical appearance you are not actually doing anything to correct this.

ohh man, i would do anything just to have a great selfesteem, i see the problem in the media, seriously, one day you find yourself ok and the other day you think that you look like $hit, that all because fashion changes, you have to stick with the fashion, you got to have a big ass like JLO or cute lips like Angelina Jolie...etc....

Disliking ourselves . . . it's just something that we do. Why? Your answer is just as good as mine!

It's just like someone once told me . . . "We are our own worst enemy".

Speaking of being a 'worst enemy'; I admit that I'm not much to look at, that's why I don't post any pics of myself. Those of you, who I have seen a photo of . . you are 'pretty' people!! I admire your courage to post!

I posted a few of myself in the gallery because I don't know anyone therefore I didn't feel embarrassed, I have had a few of my pics moked by others in another forum and it put me off and made me feel horrible about myself.
When I saw how friendly everyone was in this forum, I began to feel a lil bit more confortable with it again, and thought, well if no one likes them thats ok as everyone is entitled to their own views but I won't let anyone put me off again, nd I also love to post up pics of my photoshop work.

Nativechick, girl you shouldn't be afraid to show your pic to anyone, if you take a look in the thread titled - Looks V's Personiality, you will see that a good 95% of those people all voted personiality, and I may be a bit of a newbie here, but girl I have read a lot of your posts, and ok granted I don't know you all that well and shouldn't judge you, but I am going to anyway.
....You strike me as a beautiful person, your personiality shines through nearly every post you make, and I would challenge anyone that disagrees with me, including you missy LOL. I am willing to bet that no matter what your pic may look like, a lot and I mean a lot of folks including the guys on here will like it, heck they already like you because you are a nice gal so heck why not post your pic.

Ok for the next hour I am your leader and I command you to post up your pic

Well you can if you want to but I would love to see at least one lil pic of yours.

PS I am not just saying that, I didn't have to say anything but I meant every last word of it .

Aww . . You're Sweet, Beckys Mom!!

But, I'm still not comfortable with posting a pic . .

And It's horrible for someone to mock your pictures! That's just mean!!

Yea but at that time I was a member of an idiot forum and threfore mocked by the idiots that entered it....but this forum is much different and thats what makes it a lot easier for me

If we have a positive image about ourselves, whether it be personality or looks, then it really shouldn't matter how other people judge us. Judge ourselves, and then we will be much happier.

I also think that weight issues actually stem from having low self-esteem and lack of self-love, and we become unhealthy. Once we like ourselves our treatment of our own body improves and we don't want to passively 'kill ourselves' through food, drugs or whatever else we use to fill-in that 'hole' that should be filled with own love.