Yeah i think so too. :p
But what i meant kind of was that even if you like how you look, and someone else doesn't. Some people make a point of telling you.
like you could be at peace with how you look until someone comments that you need to change something.
Stuff like "you should eat more" is like assuming that i don't already force myself to eat a lot...
they dont know

That is quite true. Though I'm only at peace with myself by avoiding mirrors.

I used to hear the "you should eat more" when I was younger... but lately not so much. Though I suppose of all the ages that get the most ridicule for how they look, that would be the younger people. *is old now*

I think middle school was the worst because that's around the time when other girls had terrible attitudes and puberty was attacking us.
like the whole bra and make up thing sprung up randomly. and then periods.

it sucked so much.

At some point in my life, I somehow stopped caring much about appearances. Probably once I started college.

In high school, females were caring about how some people's ribs showed, which meant they were skinny. and skinny was I guess you could say "in fashion" in my high school at the time. And people started plucky their eyebrows and wearing high heels and styling their hair and make-up and going dress shopping for prom.

In high school, males started going to the gym. A lot of boys who were overweight suddenly realized that puberty meant they could eat while losing fat and gaining muscle by working out. I watched overweight boys turn into athletic and fit teenagers during that time period.

In college, none of that really crossed my mind much anymore. I guess it helped that most of my college friends didn't care much either. We just had so many adventures to go on, places to explore, things to learn that appearance was low priority. That's not to say we weren't an attractive group.

And now, my roommate has a full length mirror against the wall that I admire myself in. I'm not a fashionable person or anything. I just have super high self esteem. But I realize not everyone is lucky in that way.

But now, I am also more aware of the health effects of leading a mostly sedentary life, which I unfortunately do. So I take the stairs when possible and go to the gym to work on cardio and whatnot when I have the time to do so.

@salvete

Whoa it was a completely different case for me.
Highschool was as you say, a 'fashion show'. Girls cared more about appearances and compared themselves with other girls.
I wasn't really into those sort of things and therefore i was looked at negatively. Not that i was "terrible looking" i just wasn't fixing myself up "right" or to other peoples standards. They would say things like "why dont you wear some makeup?" or "you should wear more shorts or skirts"
At the time, i didn't like wearing those things because i was getting comments about how skinny i was and if i showed skin, it would attract more attention and comments about my weight. So i wore baggy clothes or just covered up all the time.

Then when I started going to college, you see pretty girls who are smart and nice. And the association of "make up and nice clothes" wasn't only for the popular mean girls. You could wear make up and still be nice. I admired more females and experimented with different kinds of eyeliner and make up stuff and started to dress in things that I liked. I wore shorts, dresses, skirts and all that jazz. College is great because, yes. Nobody really cares how you look. So that's why i got interested in caring about how i look- for myself. Not for anyone else because no one is paying attention to you and you can be who you want to be.
I always wanted to look nice and things but people in highschool aren't so nice or accepting and i couldn't wear those things because of fear that everyone will pick on me.
:)

I don't know if I've mentioned this here, but I've never worn make-up. Starting in high school, I've had so many friends try to make me look nicer with make-up, but they all agreed that I looked better without it. And high school was indeed that experimentation stage where people were trying to put on make-up and whatnot. But since everyone thought I looked better without make-up, it wasn't as big a deal for me. In fact, I didn't even wear make-up to the formal events like prom. And same with college friends agreeing that I looked better without make-up. Like for example they tried putting eyeliner on me to see how I looked but then took it off because it looked weird. So make-up never really crosses my mind because I've never worn it. And a lot of my female friends even now, in graduate school, don't really wear it either. I guess it helped that the schools I attended were relatively academically good...okay, I'm getting sleepy so I don't know if that made sense. But we all had learning to do and studying and grades to maintain too so I think that helped with the topic never going to the extremes.

In terms of body image, I thought more about that in high school only because everyone around me was talking about it. I've always been in the "normal" BMI range, plus I'm short so I've always shopped for extra small or size 0 clothing, max size small or maybe size 3 now that I'm getting a little fatter haha. So I'm kind of lucky in that respect. Because in high school, there was kind of a big deal about dress sizes and things like that. I knew people in high school who really restricted their diets because they wanted to lose weight or make sure that they would fit in their prom dresses, things along those lines. But since my short self was always shopping for small clothing anyway, I didn't have to think about clothing sizes much. That being said, I remember being slightly offended in high school when people called me skinny. Because I wasn't skinny. I was just short in stature so it tricks the eye. Now that I'm slightly fatter than I used to be, people still call me skinny because their eyes are tricked. But I don't mind it like I did so many years back.

Make-up and nice clothing are probably going to be in my future though. I will definitely have to dress more professionally for the professional world. And make-up is something I never really think about for myself, but I do watch make-up tutorials on youtube and whatnot, so I think someday when I have the time, I will see what I can do

Girls in highschool would wear makeup. Not very good make up. but you can't really judge them if you don't wear make up yourself. haha I remember some girls were really good at applying it and you can tell some were new to it and couldn't figure it out.
But the safest make up is the simple make up. Which is what i do. I don't really dabble in eyeshadow or heavy contour. Though, some people pull it off really well. It's not really my make up preference. I think contour is nice when you are going out for a night on the town or club. But in general, i think contour is very noticeable and is easy to compare against your real skin color and the make up. because your arms aren't contoured...so like it just looks weird that your face is the only contoured part of your body? does that make sense?? idk . make up is strange. But it's also very artistic. There's so many possibilities. and getting your eyeliner and eyebrows correctly outlined is pretty hard. :p imo

I wasn't at all interested in wearing make up when i was younger because some people would either say "you should wear some" or "you don't need any". Either of those suggestions are silly because you should wear make up if you want to- for yourself. Not because of other peoples suggestions. You should look how you want to look and it's really up to you in terms of what makes you look "better".
I don't have to wear make up, but it's a preference of mine that i do.
Because if i don't wear it, i feel like i'm 12 and people think i'm 12. Or they think i'm sick because my skin is so light and i look almost pale and sick. That, and my acne flares up every now and then. So i need some foundation to cover that up.

As for clothing, I wear whatever i think is cute. My style changes everyday though. I could be super girly one day and then next day i could wear dark colors and look very "grungy" haha
I basically just wear whatever i want, and i'm attracted to different styles. I think there's lots of nice outfits. they may not fit my personality but I enjoy dressing myself up in what i think is cool or cute lol

I like the professional looks too but i think i'll be dressing like that later in life. I don't really go anywhere where i need to look professional yet :p