Paying For Poor Body Image

Surviving the 90’s and 00's

Photo by Mpho Mojapelo on Unsplash

I distinctly remember the first time I read a fashion magazine. I was thirteen or fourteen and it was a big glossy copy of Marie Claire that my cool older cousin left when she came over from London to stay. The magazine was thick and expensive looking, it even smelled sophisticated due to the many perfume samples inside.

At the time I lived in rural West Cork in Ireland, a situation I was far from happy with. Having grown up in Oxford until I was 10, I missed the city, I missed England, and I missed feeling like I was surrounded by opportunity.

‘Cool Brittania’ was on the horizon and I felt left out. Marie Claire transported me into a glamourous world where everyone was beautiful, wealthy, and sophisticated — I was captivated.

I must have read that thing cover to cover a hundred times. I read it so much that I was convinced, when I sat down to write this, that I could google old Marie Claire covers and, despite the 30 years that have passed, would recognise the issue — but no such luck. Maybe my memories are inaccurate, perhaps it was Elle or Vogue, or maybe it’s one of the mid 90’s issues that I can’t find a cover for. Ah well.

That first magazine had me hooked and I soon started buying my own, putting my babysitting wages to good use. I gravitated…