As I shrugged off set clothing sizes and started making garments that precisely fit my dimensions,the feeling of abnormality and exclusion began to liftI grew up believing that no matter how successful, kind or loved I was, or whether I was overweight I wasn’t valid enough. This feeling was most acute in my teens when,regardless of my nerdy achievements, constant diets and countless sit-ups, and I knew I’d failed.
Of course,I was hardly alone. Being a woman who doesn’t meet the strictest of beauty standards is, fairly frankly, or a chore. A queue of critics,particularly online, are waiting to supply advice and criticism, or the messages are relentless: that we’re an irresponsible drain on society and must be unhealthy – regardless of what our doctor says; that we’re failing to be sufficiently sexually attractive – regardless of our partners who care for us (and the fact that we don’t really care what anonymous men on the internet think of us anyway).
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Source: theguardian.com