Keeping up appearances

Take a look at me as a teenager in the sixties, didn't I look the same as everyone else of that era? I was pop music mad, lad mad, fashion mad, makeup mad, and hair mad. I wanted to be like Cilla, Sandie, and Lulu, these are my attempts at trying to fit in with the crowd.

Own dyed black hair, with a hairpiece. Pink satin mini dress. Black eyeliner. Pity my toothy grin let me down, ha ha.

Blonde wig. Wrap around dress, orange top and brown skirt, ruffles round neckline.

Own dyed black hair with half wig, wide headband to disguise the join. Black satin long sleeved blouse. Brown imitation suede mini skirt with matching waistcoat laced up the front.

Black half wig, back combed and laquered, typical sixties style. Red patterened satin long sleeved mini dress with white collar and cuffs.

Hair and wig perfectly styled. White lacy blouse and black mini skirt, plenty of eye makeup. Didn't I look fab.

No one knew though, just how much I struggled inside my head. I hated my face, thought I was ugly, no, I knew I was ugly. I tried very hard to fit in and look like my mates. I wanted boys to like me, but they laughed at me. I went through agonies. It was only much later on in life that I realised I suffered from Body Dismorphic Disorder, and thanks to the internet I have been able to read up all the information there is about it. It never goes away completely, but now I can manage it.

So where am I at now? What happened? Who is this strange woman I see?

Cool specs eh! Ha ha. I still despair, but hey, this is what I am stuck with, I'd better stop wasting my life worrying about what other people think of me, and get on with it.

What has prompted me to bring this subject up again? I read in the Daily Mail, I know, crap paper but it's free, an article about Girls Aloud star Nicola Roberts. I don't know much about her singing but she is a pretty girl, or should I say was a pretty girl. Whatever has she done.

Apparently she hasn't had much confidence because she always thought she was the ugly one in the band. I know how she feels. But I am shocked at the lengths these so called stars go to, to tweak what nature has given them, in their quest to fit into a celebrity lifestyle. All I had to do was wear a wig, and put on plenty of slap.

Nicola didn't have ugly teeth, she had a pretty smile. But now she has gone and spoilt it. Her mouth is full, and I mean very full, of pure white, every one of them perfect, piano keys. They are veneers but look like dentures, and they look horrible. Her hair is different, her eyebrows are different, she didn't need all this. There are 450 comments on the article and almost everyone says how awful she looks. Silly, silly girl.

Then I see pictures of Katie Piper, the girl who was so viciously attacked and had acid thrown in her face. She has had to endure hours of surgery, in a bid to put her face back to some kind of normality. But what a lovely girl she is now.

This obsession with looking good really upsets me now, I quite happily walk round like a slob. I chucked my bra away ages ago, ha ha. I'm at that certain age where I am proud to be different, I can be who I want to be, don't have to pretend any more. Thank goodness my name isn't Hyacinth Bucket, the posh woman with the posh house, in Keeping Up With Appearances. I keep up with no one.