I adore the fashion blogger Garance Dore – she has a fresh point of view on fashion and femininity. Today she posted “The Mirror” – about an unflattering photograph from a friend, which revealed its truth to her.
THE photo that suddenly makes your legs weak, and has you feeling a little faint inside, the photo that shows you something you already knew but had chosen to ignore, the photo put right in your face by a totally innocent person with nothing but good intentions, but who, without knowing it, has just destroyed your mood for the next 72 hours.
Or the next 72 weeks.
This photo…is the bad photo.
We both believe in making the best of what you have, and appreciating yourself – but we also have these moments where of imagining or wishing to resemble a model! It must be universal – in the absence of photographic evidence (or a mirror) you can retain your self-image. A friend of mine in Japan told me once about a male colleague who didn’t understand why other women didn’t like certain photographs of themselves. “That’s just how they look, why are they upset?”
But sometimes those photo-mirror moments are empowering:
Because THE photo is also the moment when you realize something that everyone else around you could already see. Deep down, I knew I’d gained some weight. My supersonic scale doesn’t lie. My super-stretchy jeans have their limits.
But it’s crazy how good I am at avoiding what I don’t want to see. Whether it’s the bags under my eyes when I’m exhausted, or my weight on the scale, or my reflection in the mirror when I’ve let myself go a little. . . .
Once I was capable of looking at the truth straight on, I was finally able to begin to change.
Facing reality and accepting it is where change begins.
So, there you have it. The mirror, whether it’s real or symbolic, is a powerful force for change. Whether it’s for the big things in life or the little things.