Happy, playful, shy yet confident; we all have been through these stages at some point in our life but a question that has always intrigued me is why do some girls lack or lose self-confidence. It seems to happen to all of us but some are able to move on, while others get stuck. The reasons are many: too skinny, too fat, too dark, too light and on & on. I have been through a lot of these stages myself; there was a time when considered myself to be too thin and dark-skinned. I remember crying in the school bathroom that why am I so dark & thin and why do my parents not have the money to buy me nice clothes all the time. After hating myself for sometime one day I decided that from now on regardless of what anyone might think I will love myself no matter what and something changed in me. In school even though I was scared on the inside I walked around like I was the prettiest girl there. I started actively participating in everything from sports, games, dances, debate and modeling competitions (never really won any competitions) but all of a sudden I was happy still extremely scared & vulnerable inside but very happy.
Since that time I have always been confident and strong till I got pregnant and gained a whooping 100 pounds during pregnancy. So, when Serena was born I was excited to have a baby yet devastated by my body. I had retained all that weight and on top of that had pretty lines on my legs (stretch marks)! All of a sudden I felt like all my confidence was gone, I started wearing baggy clothes and hated to look at myself . One day when I was playing with Serena I was thinking that all I want my baby to be is to be a strong, caring and confident person. But how could she be all those things without a strong mother? So, once again made a promise to myself that I will love myself regardless of what others may think and so once again my attitude changed towards my own-self, soon after I did some shopping for clothes that were my actual size, I started eating right & exercising regularly and I was back to the old me in no time!
Then about a year ago my face started breaking out like I had just hit puberty, I struggle with that even now and to add to all that I recently discovered a small patch of missing hair on my head. Why am I sharing all of this? Because I realize that I am that pretty girl who other girls look at and think; I wish I was like that, tall and skinny with nice hair, skin and all the nice clothes. I have heard girls tell me before that it’s easy to be confident when you are pretty or have good genes or even money. I am here to say that it is always easy to be confident once you decide to love yourself and accept yourself for who you are. There will be times in life when your confidence will lack but do not lose it just pick yourself up and move on. Also, to those who might say that there are bigger issues in life and specially with women than just self-confidence I would say that while it’s true that there are bigger challenges & obstacles out there, it is also true that most of the time self confidence is the first challenge a young girl faces and if she can overcome that then she can do anything in life. I know my confidence in myself has led me to a successful career, happy family life and now pursuing my life time dream through this blog. So, know that in life there will always be something wrong and not everybody is going to love you and know that all of that is Ok because the only person you need is yourself. Be happy, healthy and a confident Fashion-Nina!
Blue Dress:Target
Cardigan (old): Children’s Place (similar here)
Red Flats (old): H&M (similar here)