I’m going to start off this post by giving
you warning I may sound like a vain bitch at times but its all part of the
story!
When I was growing up in Melbourne I was always told by people that I
was a pretty girl. I had long wavy brown
hair, a cute face and a funny personality which apparently all added up to a
fairly attractive girl who wasn't overly confident but wasn't shy either. We
moved to the Gold Coast when I was 12 and one memory I have from those 1st
days of moving was walking up and down the Surfers Paradise Esplanade with a
friend, walking my dog and counting how many wolf whistles we could get. Was a fun
game back then but now I would be horrified if my daughter did the same thing!
My, how times have changed.
Kindy in Melbourne |
During the 80s as a teenager living on the
Gold Coast where the popular girls had long blonde hair and were skinny and
tanned, I had many moments when I hated myself.
I had big hips like my mum, awful curly dull brown hair and was not your
typical beach girl which we all aspired to be. When I was 16 my first serious
boyfriend left me for one of those gorgeous blonde beach girls and this
absolutely killed my confidence for a few years to come.
People,this is my real hair, no perm! |
As I grew up and managed to find some
confidence in my early 20s (I also managed to tame the hair) I never struggled
to find a boyfriend and always had a lot of male attention. Walking down the street or just through the
shopping centre I would receive many looks from guys and it just seemed normal
to me. Going out was always fun and even
though I did have my heart broken I managed to break a few hearts of my own
along the way. (Sorry to any ex boyfriends reading this now).
Trying out the blonde movement in my 20s |
The point I’m trying to make and I’m sure
you probably get it by now is that I was a lucky girl who never struggled with
being hit with the ugly stick!
My, how times have changed! 20 odd years
later and I’m about to turn 44 and have well and truly lost that confidence that
I gained in my 20s. When I walk down the
street there are no looks from men, no wolf whistles, not even a glance! I have become invisible to the male
population. Now some of you will be
saying ‘but you are still pretty Katie’ and I thank you in advance for that but
you are my friends and family and the people who know me and love me, the
strangers I see on a daily basis look at me like I’m a has been with not a lot
to offer in the looks department. Middle
aged and boring.
The question is ‘Am I the type of person
who needs that male attention to make myself feel better?’ And the answer is ‘No, although a little tiny
bit occasionally would be nice’!
I think pretty much everyone on the planet
from the age of 12 wants to be seen as attractive to the opposite sex in
someway or another and the harsh reality is that unless we have had a lot of
work done like certain Real Housewives of wherever then we are going to lose
our attractiveness at some point and that’s just life.
As I have said in a previous post, getting
old sux bad! But, does it suck more for
the people who were attractive in their younger years and have experienced some
form of adoration or does it suck more for the people who have never had any
adoration at all whether they were young or old? I believe one advantage of growing older is
learning what your good points are and making sure that you use those to your
best advantage like showing off some excellent legs in a great pair of jeans
and hiding the stretch marks at the same time or accentuating a great set of
breasts whilst hiding some flabby tuck shop arms in a low cut long sleeve
top!
Anyway, it is not all bad, a few weeks ago
my friends and I went out for a girls night to an establishment on the Gold
Coast that is well known for single people of all ages to strut their
stuff. There were 10 of us ladies who
were dressed nicely and have all looked after ourselves to the best of our
ability. We walked into the bar and within seconds men of all ages, shapes and
sizes were circling us like a pack of wolves searching for their next
prey. It was really quite hilarious as
we were all there just to have fun together but this male attention was
something we were not used to. Looking
around the bar we realized that the pickings were quite slim and we were
definitely the best of a bunch.
It made us realize that even though we had
lost the better part of our youth, we could still muster up some attention and
turn some heads and we had a great laugh about this. We decided that if we ever felt down or
invisible we just had to grab a group of our gorgeous friends, come to this
establishment drink cocktails and get a confidence boost because cocktails and
friends always make life better!
Still rocking it with the 20 year olds! |
Love ya guts
Katie xx
Oh I so get this in that the other day I was walking out of woolies on a Saturday night - such is the exciting life of a 40 year old, and I spied one of the most gorgeous guys I have seen in like forever. He would have been no more than 20 but i could not stop staring. When a group of young gals walked past him he stoppped what he was doing and turned to stare and I had a wave of nostalgia... back to the days when I could have turned a head from a guy like that lol. I think it is one of the parts of getting older I dont like too much, feeling like you need to feel attractive to others still. Although my husband tells me so all the time, a little whistle here or there can do wonders for the 40 something year old ego ;) xx
ReplyDeleteI have figured out how to conquer this issue Sonia, go to a 50 year old's party when you are a few years younger and you get lots of attention and admirers!
DeleteKatie xx