I hear you. I only gained 25 lbs during my pregnancy, and even though my bump was too big to be “cute” (large, low, in-front kid plus large fibroid), I more or less resembled the societal ideal of the pregnant woman—like myself, relatively thin, with a fake-looking bump. It’s the way women in my family tend to look…

So true! Not that the Duchess of Cambridge is accountable to anybody but herself where her own person is concerned, but I greatly appreciated her appearing with a postpartum baby bump...and was then disheartened to read that she was being lauded in various media for getting back to her pre-pregnancy shape in something…

When I first gave birth, I wanted to get that “pre-baby” body back. I had a really traumatic pregnancy, birth, and postpartum experience because I fell into all the many cracks in the Canadian healthcare system. I couldn’t wait to be a “before” again. It’s not happening, though. I lost all the pregnancy weight and…

Also, I used to think it was a boob issue because I have H cups, but I assure you that it’s not. Somewhere out there, there exist multiple scarf drapes that are right for you!

Me neither! I like being able to focus and having high-enough blood sugar. The only times I lost weight I was having a great time eating whatever I wanted and not thinking about my weight at all.

I can’t wear heels because of bunions, but even when they weren’t as bad I still looked like I was walking gingerly around on stilts. It was not sexy. I just came to them too late.

I think scarves require immersion like language immersion. I couldn’t figure out how to wear them until I was 29, which made me sad, because I love scarves. Then I lived in Northern Europe (land of the big scarves) for a year, and I came back suddenly knowing what to do with them. I didn’t try and I wasn’t conscious…

Ugh, this makes me so angry for you. It also reminds me of when I used to live in this small rural town (like, 150 people) with my ex, and one of the lifelong residents was this elderly mentally retarded man who developed an obsession with me and would stalk me outside my house and follow me around and try to kiss me…

I was actually pressured to have a c-section only because the asshole resident was bored (I was actually fine and delivered vaginally when the O.B. found out about it and intervened). Even so, I have a large fibroid and was led to believe for most of my pregnancy that I’d have a c-section, and have nothing against…

Not saying this is your situation at all, but this is bringing back unpleasant memories of my abusive ex, who would freak the fuck out and act like I was some kind of dirty animal whenever he found one of my hairs (somehow his also became mine, even though he had short, straight black hair and I had medium-to-long,…

She writes for The Tablet now! Mostly about parenthood and Jewish stuff. http://tabletmag.com/author/mingall (Sorry, maybe you know that already, but just in case.)

I had the same experience living in Helsinki—dark, "curly" (it's wavy) hair, boobs! It made me feel really sexy and unusual. A lady came up to me once and asked me shyly where I got my hair done because the color and texture were really "natural." It was a rare humid day and my hair was wild and slightly frizzy, so…

I’m from the shore too! I didn’t have internet growing up (when it first entered my notice, when I was in high school I thought of it as a “rich kid” thing and didn’t use it or even have access to it until college), and felt out-of-place for various reasons (very academically and artistically inclined, curious about…

I lived in a Nordic country for a number of years (had to leave in part because of the racism my nonwhite now-husband experienced), where I kept hearing, “oh, but we can’t be racist here, not like the US! We LOVE primitive peoples!” Nobody could understand why this was problematic, no matter how I explained it. Also,…

I love/hate this—love because it sounds so familiar and is such an apt description of the phenomenon (Menopause Mushroom! Elderly Elf!), and hate because I'm sure it's true. It's also been my experience as someone with rather "ethnic" hair that nobody ever asks your preference if you have "ethnic" hair either, but…

I have kvetched about this all over social media, but I noticed that starting at about age 27 or so (I'm now 36), stylists in a variety of price ranges started giving me a default thinned out, above-the-shoulder professional lady mullet, which I hate, no matter how thoroughly I explained what I wanted or how many…

My husband is the one who hoards the water bottles. He even hoards the ones that have obviously turned. He also thinks buying water is a waste of money and we could just as well go to any eatery-type-place where we're eating and fill up one of the hoarded, possibly-dank-smelling water bottles in the bathroom and drink…

So much of what you wrote really resonates with me! My father is still alive, and my parents are/were Narcissists, clinically speaking, among other things. They were also the epitome of Boomer selfishness, in addition to being abusive and absolutely batsh!t. When I was little, my father started out in a good job that…

I had a friend like this when we were studying abroad together for a year. He and I bonded over obscure classical music (he's the only person my age I've ever met who has heard of this stuff too) and depression. I could tell he had Issues with emotional affairs and such (always engaged to one woman while becoming…

My husband and I met in our graduate program and began dating immediately. His best (platonic) friend from the program is a woman. I like her a lot and vice versa, but she's close friends with him, not me. I'd been fresh out of the second of my two abusive long-term relationships with someone who manipulated me into…