Beauty Diaries

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I got married within a mere 3 days of meeting my husband. I think the number one reason is because I was pretty, skinny and held most stereotypical norms of beauty. But after I became a mother and when I gained 30 pounds as a result, I feel that my husband sees me as unattractive and he has begun to ignore/neglect me. I started feeling less important to him. I think a man should respect a women's inner beauty not those stereotypes of beauty. And thus all the toxic products that are on the market that the beauty industry uses to pressure society and women to use to try and look, feel more beautiful makes matters even worse.  We must embrace ourselves with our unique individualities and physical characteristics and embrace the amazing transformations that women go through to conceive a child.  Women’s bodies are not wrong, it’s the industries and societies that are wrong for making women feel bad and insecure about their bodies, rather than celebrating their amazing ability to bring life!

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I am from the generation that declared that natural bodily functions and secretions were unwelcome,

unpleasant and most of all, no one wanted to SMELL them. We were sold on the idea of a feminine deodorant

spray, a product aptly named FDS and it was sprayed on your vaginal area to subdue those nasty vagianl odours after you had a shower and it promised to keep you fresh as a daisy for hours! Great - not! It stung my delicate mucous membranes and I decided that I would rather risk being smelly than suffer that discomfort. I further deduced that if it hurt that much, it might not be such a healthy product. My solution was to use dusting powder, in my underwear, lots and lots of dusting powder for years and years and years. It was only after I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer that I learned that talc was akin to asbestos and was linked to ovarian cancer. We have a right to know what we are putting on our bodies. Educate yourself and read labels girls!

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I struggle with my body image and as the decades progress, I know that I am that much removed from ever getting my body back, well the body that I never felt I had, even when I had it. Only by looking at old pictures of myself that I thought (at the time they were taken) that I was too heavy, do I realize that I had a pretty good body and I should have been happy with it. It served me well and I didn't appreciate it. I wanted it to be perfect, like magazine perfect. Why do we impose these standards on ourselves and try so hard to please?

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*Thank you so much to everyone who has shared their personal stories with us. Please submit your beauty diary, email us!