I was just talking about this on the Hotness of You thread, and I really wasn't intending to make good on that promise to make a long post about it here so soon. But here goes.
My rant is about weight. I know no girl is ever truly satisfied with herself- we all have things about us we wish we could change. Well, I'm the same way. Here are the facts: I'm about 5'4" and I weigh under 100 pounds. To be exact, I average about 92 lbs. on a normal day, although it does wiggle a little bit. I have no eating disorders whatsoever; I eat as much if not more than many of my friends, get semi-regular exercise in the form of dance, and my immune system is probably pretty strong, because I don't get sick a lot. Generally I'm a healthy person.
I'm not entirely able to pinpoint why I continue to be the size I am. Part of it may be the way I was born- I was a few weeks premature, and I have a twin sister, so I was sharing the womb, as it were.

That may have contributed, but it doesn't necessarily explain why I've stuck that way. I also did get regular exercise in my childhood, so that may have contributed; and the typical "I have a fast metabolism" probably does apply (considering how I remain tiny even when I'm not getting as much exercise).
As I mentioned in the Hotness thread, I don't necessarily want to drastically change my size. I like being small because it has its perks- I believe I listed "optimum hugging size" and "ability to be picked up" as some of them.

I also fit into really cute clothes and I am really flexible. These are all great. But I feel like there are significant downsides to being the way I am. A couple of them have to do with the media- for instance, people who are this small often have eating disorders to get that way. I have never in my life eaten in any way except normally, and I'm constantly afraid that people might see me and think I'm unhealthy. On the flipside, the media tends to glorify skinny people as being attractive and ideal, which I don't think is true. I look at people with larger body types- not overweight, but normal-sized- and I think they are absolutely beautiful. I'm not sure I would necessarily date someone as small as I am, because I don't find it very attractive at all. On other people or on myself.
Lately I've started having real issues with it. Stress caused a lot of problems for me, and most of them have gone away- except my body image is still shaken up. Despite being self-conscious about weight, in high school I actually had a pretty high opinion of myself- I thought there was reallly nothing wrong with me, all things considered. My opinion has changed quite a bit, though. To be honest, I look in the mirror and what I see disappoints me on good days and horrifies me on bad ones. I look at my arms in pictures and realize how thin they are, and it really saddens me. I observe that I have no real pronounced chest or hips or butt, and I feel somehow less of a woman because I don't have a figure. I look at my tiny body and feel like it makes me smaller emotionally,
weaker emotionally. I never felt that way before this year. And that in turn frightens me, because I know it's a horrible way to look at myself and I should find some way to turn it around. But I can't seem to fix the way I am, so I just get frustrated about it. Even as I see the perks, even as overall I'm happy with it and sincerely wouldn't want a drastic change, I continue to be uncomfortable with the way I look.
It got brought up here because my friend (who is on the heavier side) has done a great job and lost 11 pounds this month- without becoming obsessive about it, she just became more active and it happened naturally. She's got this weight plan set up for the summer, and so we got to talking about her body image. Because she's a close enough friend to ask these sorts of questions, she asked my roommate and I how much we weigh. I couldn't bring myself to say the actual number; I just said "under 100 pounds" and left it at that. And I felt so ashamed afterwards, that when she left the room I nearly cried. I know I need to stop seeing the number and focusing on the number; it's just the same as it is for people who are overweight. I'm healthy, and that's what matters.
But I'm rambling. And the long and short of it is: my Moment of Truth is that I hate the way I look. Just like everyone else.
Saena