Shapes

Working at Victoria's Secret sucks. I mean, sure the discount rocks, and I had the pleasure of working with some really cool women, plus the product is quality, but it sucks. 4 years being surrounded by posters of freakishly skinny women whose skin has been photoshopped to perfection does not exactly do wonders for the self-esteem. Personally I think the models tend to look alien and their lack of curves (even though they're supposed to be the epitome of sexy) honestly freaks me out. It's especially hard having this idea of beauty crammed down your throat when you're an active woman.

Women in the action sports tend to fit a different body type than your average lingerie model; we tend to have narrower waists and wider hips and/or thighs. It makes clothes shopping a bitch-and-a-half. I've spent months looking for shorts with a decent inseam (~3 inches) that fit my waist and thighs; pretty sure I'm going to have to learn to sew.

I've never had a great body image. Growing up I was. . . not chubby, but plumper; dressing poorly for my body didn't help either. The goth phase DEFINITELY didn't help. I've pretty much always been confident in every other aspect of my life, but this one was not. My time spent at VS did further damage to my psyche.

Moving to UT without a car forced me into a much more active lifestyle and helped me drop about 8 lbs. I was in the 128-130 range (5'5") when I moved here and now sit comfortably at 120. What's better is I've gained a ton of muscle (i.e. slimmed down without dropping too much weight). I was in a healthy weight range before, but now I feel so much better about myself. And it's not because I'm crazy skinny or can now become a lingerie model myself; it's because I finally know that is never how I want to look.

Pretty much it comes down to this: I have meaty thighs and I like it. I'm a petite white girl with a butt. Sure shopping for pants sucks, but all that muscle down there means I can take the G's of a slalom turn like it's nothing. It means I am built for skiing. It shows me that my love of this sport has literally shaped me to become better at it. I'll never be a twig and never want to be. I'm an athletic woman and I look it. Score.