In honor of National Eating Disorder Awareness Week, Sally McGraw of Already Pretty has coordinated Body Image Warrior Week this week. This initiative has brought together a number of body image bloggers to share their stories and wisdom. I’m pleased through this post to make my own contribution to her efforts and thank her for allowing me to participate….

I’d never written anything for the web before but decided I wanted to give it a try. So less than a year ago, I took a seminar on starting a blog. Write about something you’re passionate about it, suggested the instructor. Something you have a lot to say about.

I look around and see the unrealistic expectations about our appearances that society dictates to us and we put on ourselves and I get really angry. So many women I admire sell themselves short, fixating on perceived flaws. We’re taught we need to be perfect. And the definition of perfect shoved down our throats is unattainable to most of us. And why would we want it really? What’s so bad about being ourselves?

So I started Size and Substance. It’s given me a forum to write about all the things that were making me crazy. Continue reading →