Beauty Mood Swings

There is nothing like working in lingerie to make you realize that everyone's idea of beauty is a mess. Half the people I meet are looking to make themselves smaller, the other half bigger. Everyone is saturated with articles that automatically assume we all have some major "problem area." As a short woman (4' 10 1/2"), I have yet to read an article on clothing styles that doesn't suggest I wear one solid color from waist to feet to "extend my leg." Do they honestly think that going monochrome will make people think I've breached the 5 foot barrier?

I prefer to think I look great just as I am and would simply like some nice clothing suggestions, not suggestions implying I have some defect that needs correcting. I have spent so much time looking around the world and alternating between moments of thinking I'm gorgeous and moments of thinking I'm hideous, that I have decided to give the phenomenon a name: beauty mood swings.

Acknowledging your beauty mood swings is the first step to improving your self-esteem. After all, it is not physically possible to be both stunningly beautiful and freakishly ugly. Nor can all other women be beautiful, with the sole exception being oneself (I fall prey to that one way too often). A beauty mood swing is when, based on nothing other than a sudden shift in your perceptions and self-esteem, you go from knowing how fabulous you are, to feeling you are never, ever going to be good enough.

Fellow bloggers, what causes your beauty mood swings? What do you do to feel good about yourself again?