We all have our hang-ups but what’s amazing is that, probably, 89.99% of them are all in our head. And if you’re anything like us, most of the time we can recall WHEN that self-doubt started to creep up in our lives (teenage years, anyone?).
Meet Lydia Donaldson from California, Shapermint customer and one of the smartest, most confident and gorgeous women we’ve ever met. She can tell EXACTLY when she started thinking she was fat.
Yes, that’s her in the thumbnail. Yes, she’s always been basically the same size. And yes, she was STILL called fat during her teenage years. Check out her story -and how she deals with her self-doubts and hang-ups today- in the video below. Or, scroll over to the Video Transcript below if you’re feeling too lazy to click play 😉
All it takes is ONE kid for us to wind up struggling with self-image issues the rest of our lives. Don’t let how other people see you define who you are - after all, all it takes is ONE person to treat us well and be kind to us to undo the harm: ourselves!
I’m Lydia Donaldson and I’m originally from Glendale California - but my family is all from Argentina so I consider myself an “Argentina-Americana”.
There was a turning point that happened to me when I was a young girl. I always felt pretty good about myself. I don’t think you really think that much about what you look like when you’re a little kid. As you start getting older, then you start hearing comments and I remember, very specifically, a boy telling me I was fat. And I had never ever thought I was fat because in my family everybody thought I was skinny so in my mind I was a skinny girl. And then, suddenly, with one little comment -which, you know, who knows why he said it or what the deal is-, it definitely changed how I felt. From that point forward I saw myself as fat and I judged myself as that, which is very sad because it’s when I was starting to become a teenage girl. And I think that’s when girls start changing how they feel about themselves.
I think all women have hang-ups somewhere on their bodies. Definitely,I have hangups, you know, with my tummy, with my thighs, my cellulite, my skin, little pieces. And they are probably a little of both (real AND imagined). Some of it is real, yeah, it’s not perfect and it has its flaws and then some of it is probably a little bit more made up in my mind, where I think it’s worse than it is - at least that’s what my husband says. One point for him!
I think the best thing you can do for yourself, that everybody can do, is have gratitude. Because if instead of thinking about what your body looks like, you think about what your body can do, then you’re going to feel beautiful. I mean, think about if you woke up one morning and your legs didn’t work. You wouldn’t care if they were fat or they were short or they were stumpy - you would just want them to work. But if we can appreciate our bodies, what our brains do for us every day, help us think, help us move and the things that we do… I think gratitude is what creates a more positive energy within your body.
I think wearing shapewear just makes you feel more confident, it makes you feel more beautiful, it makes you feel more put together. It makes your outfits always look a lot better because it helps with the shape of your body, which makes you feel better. You know you look in the mirror and you think “wow, I look great!”. And that just builds confidence and I think that positive energy is just put out there in the world, which is really important.
