2025-06-27 – Health – www.theguardian.com
We’re up against industries worth billions, and millennia of raising girls on skincare and diets, advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith writes. When things do feel wobbly, smaller interventions might stop the scrutiny cycle
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How can I stop fixating so much on my appearance? I’m a woman in my late 30s and recently a photo taken in a professional context has sent me spiralling about how I appear to others. I find myself poring over photos for evidence that I’m either ugly or beautiful. In reality I know I’m pretty average looking and the way I look hasn’t held me back from finding a loving partner or living a meaningful life – so it shouldn’t matter. And yet when my confidence wobbles or my mood is low, it’s my physical appearance that obsesses me. How can I de-centre the importance of looks?
Eleanor says: Lately I’ve been getting a lot of ads for cosmetic surgeries; I guess the algorithm ghost thinks I’d like some. But I keep having this…