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[quote=Anonymous]OP, I had to check the date on this post because I thought it was something I posted 1-2 years ago that got resurrected.

I am a short-necked, broadly built woman who takes after my parental grandfather’s side- they were all lovely, barrel-chested people. I didn’t get that body until I was 13-14 but I’ve been my full adult height since I was 10. Now I’m 5’5 and large-chested and 140 lbs no matter what I do. In my mind I’m still a very tall slender athletic kid, but in reality I’m much broader and bigger than my peers. I also do not photograph well because of tween and teen years being criticized by my mom for how I looked, especially in formal group photos. Even today, lining up for a photo at a work conference or a volunteer even makes me anxious and it comes across in my facial expressions.

I work hard with the body I have and try to dress fashionably and I definitely stay fit, but what I see in the mirror and in my head is never a match for the reality of photos. I guess it’s a reverse body dysmorphia, because my body feels good to me but the way it looks in photos and to others doesn’t match the kind of person I imagine I am. I do the kinds of things that preppy, lithe, athletic people do but I don’t look like it. I remember my 1st year assigned study group in my elite MBA program being shocked that I played a certain sport- that was a time that I realized that people perceived me as a person differently than who I actually was only because of how my body looked. It definitely affected my career at various points as well as my ability to make new friends. I have to work hard for people to see the real me.

I have spent much of my life around very slender, small-framed people and it is always a shock to see myself from the side or back in a candid or to see myself in a formal photo with others. It especially hurts when smaller and more conventionally attractive people are the ones saying “we all have bad photos” or they’re the ones managing the lineup for the photo or the photo selection.

TLDR: The body I was given isn’t one that matches the person I am inside.[/quote]

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