Body Shape Questions

[shopgirl61]

Well, I see we are talking about boobs now lol

Here is what I found out and, only several years ago, because of the amount of lifting that i've done, ie: 8 yrs of shoveling snow in Alaska to mowing my lawns with a push mower, my pectoral muscles are pretty well defined, given that my style of doing things is differant from yours I am somewhat 'perky'.

So, enjoy what you've got! and remember, if you want, you can always do as the celebrities do,,,, get a boob job

 

[Brooksie]

i am making an effort to accept how i look and the ladies on FL have helped a lot but i really hate my silhouette.

I'm 34-27(to 9, depending)-37

its horrible.

Bra shopping actually brought me to tears when i went to get measured and i tried on a 32c then a 34c then a 34b then a 34A and she told me it was the best i was going to get. (i still had gaps at the top) who was i kidding with a 32 c? no i'm just broad with no boobs.

i wouldn't mind except if you looked at my shadow you wouldn't even know i had them. literally - they are so close together? it doesn't look right with bras on the bras look like they don't fit and all the side srap bits can be seen accross my front.

you'd have thought that being kind of not a supermodel like me that i might actually gain some weight there but apparently only at my waist.
[huh]


Annie
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Hey Annie -

When I was in my 20's my bust size was 32A, when I hit my 30's 34AA now in my 40's 31 1/2 A or sometimes AA (I need like a cutlet and a half!lol ). I have always wanted more in that department my whole life and it has taken me a life time to finally accept and appreciate what I have. Hopefully just being on here and learning about everybody else and thier body types you will learn this lesson a lot sooner than most. So hang in there kid! We all have our body type issues and nobody is perfect also what I want to know is what is perfect anyways? Everybody thinks something else is perfect and it is also different if you ask women and when you ask men.

Brooksie

 

[Puzzicato]

So take a breath, have a cookie (or better yet a lemon square!), some tea, and realize you are just fine the way you are

LD

May I have a lemon square too please? I am OK with my proportions, but if there is home baking going, I want in!

 

[MissHannah]

Annie - I jumped from 32A in my late teens to 32C in my late twenties, so you may well expand over the next few years! And if you don't you'll be grateful not to have to worry about sagging! My measurements are very similar to yours: 34-26-37 and I wear vintage bras padded with What Katie Did bullet pads to give myself more of an hourglass shape. I'm a great believer in the idea that there really is no such thing as a 'normal' body shape and that whatever we have is perfectly normal, natural and acceptable. I hope you can learn to love your fabulous frame

 

[HannahJane]

I used to hate my body shape when I was in my mid teens! The problem was that having a large bust and being only 5 foot made me feel really fat and frumpy. Admittedly I was also a bit chubbier then but I don't think I was ever as hideous as I imagined myself to be!

Now I like my shape a bit more but it can be really frustrating. At the moment my measurements are roughly 42- 32- 39 and it is so difficult to get nice dresses and blouses that fit properly! Sometimes I feel like having such a big bust hides the fact I actually have a waist. I wouldn't mind having reduction surgery, really.
Saying that some of my friends rave about my body, they think I have great proportions despite being such a shortie lol. I suppose I shouldn't really grumble, there are worse things in life than having curves, but some days I still feel as frumpy as I did at 15.

 

[MissHannah]

Nice to see another British Hannah! I lived in Sheffield for 4 years when I was at Art College in the early-to-mid 90's.

I was a really skinny teenager - at 15 my measurements were 30-21-31 - so growing a few curves as an adult has been a joyous experience for me! As a teenager I imagined I was the most hideous being on the planet and I am still a little body-dismorphic (what I see in the mirror doesn't bear much relation to how I actually look to others - this is both frustrating and liberating in equal measure!). I didn't really learn to love and appreciate my body until my late twenties. Now in my late 30's I'm going off it again and need to reappreciate my new, older, bodyshape! Any tips on how to accept a peri-menopausal ageing body appreciated!

 

[KittyT]

Hello ladies, I am currently reading a book by Joan Jacobs Brumberg called "The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls" and I highly recommend that you all find a copy asap and read it (available new on Amazon from around $5). It's pretty enlightening, and while it may not change the way you see your body, it will give you some interesting insights into how we developed our current modern obsession with our body image.

A hundred years ago, women were lacing themselves into corsets and teaching their daughters to do the same. The ideal of the day, however, was inner beauty: a focus on good deeds and a pure heart. Today American women have more social choices and personal freedom than ever before. But fifty-three percent* of our girls are dissatisfied with their bodies by the age of thirteen, and many begin a pattern of weight obsession and dieting as early as eight or nine. Why?

In The Body Project, historian Joan Jacobs Brumberg answers this question, drawing on diary excerpts and media images from 1830 to the present. Tracing girls' attitudes toward topics ranging from breast size and menstruation to hair, clothing, and cosmetics, she exposes the shift from the Victorian concern with character to our modern focus on appearance -- in particular the desire to be model-thin and sexy. Compassionate, insightful, and gracefully written, The Body Project explores the gains and losses adolescent girls have inherited since they shed the corset and the ideal of virginity for a new world of sexual freedom and consumerism -- a world in which the body is their primary project.

* This book was published in 1997. I would wager that this number is much higher today.

And an Amazon.com review:

Adolescent girls today face the issues girls have always faced: "Who am I?" and "Who do I want to be?" Unfortunately their answers, now more than ever before, revolve around the body rather than the mind, heart, or soul. "The body is at the heart of the crisis that [Carol] Gilligan, [Mary] Pipher, and others describe.... The fact that American girls now make the body their central project is not an accident or a curiosity," writes Brumberg, "it is a symptom of historical changes that are only now beginning to be understood." The historical photos, thorough research, and political even-handedness make this a book of worth and sincerity. The Body Project is also comforting for women, adolescents, parents, lesbians, and male lovers of women--helping us sort out the roots of female insecurities, obsessions, and angst.

 

[Fleur De Guerre]

I spent my entire teenage years and early twenties loathing my body due to its 34 AA, barely, 27, 39 shape. Crying during bra and bikini shopping, thinking about it every single day, refusing to even show myself in a bathing suit as a teen. I didn't just feel depressed about it, I felt incomplete - like women who lose a breast (or both) to cancer, I knew it was illogical but I did feel less womanly, and I felt cheated by nature. And in my mid-twenties I finally had the money and courage to change it, and I had surgery. It's not a secret, I've talked about it on here in depth before, but it changed my life. Best thing I ever did, hands down. I'm now 37 (38 in my 34D bra, I have never been quite able to part with push ups), 27, 39, and I have never spared my shape another thought since. Well except for the usual 'I could do with slimmer thighs but can't really be arsed to do anything about them...so clearly I'm not that bothered really' thoughts.

 

[Deleted member 12480]

fleur i envy your figure so much i go green.

 

[KittyT]

fleur i envy your figure so much i go green.

Annie, learning to love yourself is one of the most important things you can do for your own happiness. I know you're at a difficult age, and that it's also hard to learn to not always envy what others have, but that envy will bring you nothing but misery. Try hard to not let yourself become obsessed with your body, and to constantly compare yourself to others - if you let yourself do this, you will always feel less than you are!

Fleur does have a fantastic figure... but there are many women of all shapes and sizes here who are beautiful. Instead, try to envy what they do to put their best foot forward and flaunt what they have - because unlike what God gave you, this is something you actually do have control over.

 

[zendy]

Annie, learning to love yourself is one of the most important things you can do for your own happiness.

Words to live by.

 

[KittyT]

Words to live by.

And it's a constant stuggle. It's something I struggle with every day, but as long as you realize it, you're starting to solve your problem

 

[Fleur De Guerre]

Yes don't get me wrong - I thoroughly advocate learning to love yourself before resorting to drastic measures like I did - it's something it took me 10 years to build up to! Bear in mind also that you're 15 Annie - people's bodies can change shape at any age and chests in particular can suddenly start growing at 16, 18, even 21 or even late 20s as Hannah's did! I was always waiting, and it never happened, but that's not the same for everyone!

 

[Puzzicato]

Bear in mind also that you're 15 Annie - people's bodies can change shape at any age and chests in particular can suddenly start growing at 16, 18, even 21 or even late 20s as Hannah's did!

So true! My mother (a substantial 36DD) used to tease me when I was a 34A, with "Well you are no daughter of mine". So it took me a really long time (basically after I turned 30) to realise that the 34As had drifted up to a 36C and that I am substantially more than a handful now!

 

[Miss Golightly]

I think everyone with little breasts dream fondly of bigger ones...

I have to say that I have never wanted bigger breasts - I've always liked having a small chest - I imagine I'm probably in the minority on that one though!

... but it's a lot like curly hair vs straight hair... both have their ups and downs.

But this I have to agree with - as you can see from my avatar my hair is pin straight - it wouldn't matter if I was in serious humidity or a storm - my hair just stays the same! What I wouldn't give for a curl - or even a kink!!!!!!

 

[Jennifer Lynn]

Annie - I jumped from 32A in my late teens to 32C in my late twenties, so you may well expand over the next few years!

MissHannah - I was in the same boat. Small chested and very, very skinny up until my early 20's, and then BOOM, my family genes kicked in and I grew into the shape I have now. I like my shape, but in the past was a little downtrodden when my mom would comment how I looked so much better in clothes when I was skinny. She's since stopped with the comments, as she knows it doesn't help, and she loves me the way I am curves and all.

Annie - Work with what you have now. No matter if your body decides to keep that shape or not as you grow into adulthood, the main focus is to appreciate who you are step by step, year by year.

 

[Ms Sew-n-Sew]

Annie - those are pretty much my numbers too and good numbers they are! I love being an almost perfect vintage 16.

Life's too short to worry or not eat cake. And it's far too short for jogging, in my opinion

I'm 34-27(to 9, depending)-37

its horrible.

 

[Rhian]

My measurements are 34" 28" 41" (aka Miss BigBum!) and I'm an A-cup. deleteduser, don't despair! I think every woman has had the experience of going into a changing room and feeling tearful because nothing seems to fit the way it should - I can assure you that I have (and I still hate bra shopping). You're absolutely not alone, but it's not the end of the world.

Do try different styles of bra, as it can make all the difference. Some of them are just not going to work at the moment. I like a lightly padded underwire with the shaped cups, rather than a cup made from a single layer of fabric. A sports bra may be the most comfortable thing at this stage of your development.

I have a long torso with a high waist, so a lot of fitted tops don't fit in the right place, and are too short. Actually, an awful lot of things don't fit me. lol (Don't get me started on skirts and where the waists are meant to hit...) After a lot of changing room heartache, I have finally got a sense of what suits me and what is always going to look silly. A-line skirts and wider are good, depending on the waistline, as are tops with a bit of interest around the chest - pintucks, or gathering, or lace etc. I highly recommend separates as opposed to dresses if you're having trouble. I can't wear off-the-rail dresses unless the hip measurement is free - nothing fits my hips and my chest!

Here's something silly: I never wear trousers, apart from pyjama trousers. I just can't feel comfortable in them, but I'm working on it. When I was a teen, hipsters were in, and of course I looked like a prat in them, so I think it dented my confidence somewhat. I like the high-waisted wide-legged vintage style, however, and I'm resolved to try and make a pair one of these days.

 

[Deleted member 12480]

thankyou for the suggestions. i feel a lot more normal now. I just wish i had a more feminine silhouette, instead of looking very much like a spoon.

thankyou for the ideas on what works with figures, although i think i'm past the sports bra part in my life. Unless i'm actually doing some sport. ( i would hardly want to damage the little i actually have)

sorry gals - i'm always moaning and 'freaking out' so i apologise, i assume it must get fairly irritating after a while. I just get really depressed a lot.

(is there a bi-polar spectrum? Cause if there is i am convinced i am on the lower end of the scale)

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[kamikat]

sorry gals - i'm always moaning and 'freaking out' so i apologise, i assume it must get fairly irritating after a while. I just get really depressed a lot.

(is there a bi-polar spectrum? Cause if there is i am convinced i am on the lower end of the scale)

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Don't worry about it. It's perfectly normal at your age. We've all been through it.