The Girl In The Mirror...Is ME?
 

I am making this thread to discuss an issue that has come to be of great concern to me lately.

Every day I look in the mirror, and see a beautiful girl. I love the way I look. I see a gorgeous young lady, who is just a little chubby...but in a cute way. I'm happy with myself every day as far as looks go.

But then something unfortunate happens. I see myself in pictures, and I look like a beached whale! I know the old saying that the camera adds on 10 pounds...but how many damn cameras are on me to get that picture?! When I see myself in pictures, everything looks MUCH bigger...my face, my boobs, my legs...EVERYTHING! I almost feel like I'm looking at a completely different person. Everyone else in the pictures look the size I see them as irl...why am I seeing someone different in the mirror? :(

I have no answers except to say that I used to experience the same exact thing. A pic of me (a day that I thought really good) is one of the things that convinced me I really must do something. I try to remember that cameras don't lie. I also remember though that body image and self-image are not the same thing.

I could have written this post. I never really SAW how big I was in the mirror. I think when we gain a lot of weight really quickly our brains take a very long time to catch up... same as losing weight quickly. But when I saw pics of myself I darn near freaked!!!!!

*hugs* I understand.

don't have an answer, just empathy. and for me, it's the same thing fat or thin.
When I lost a lot of weight 5 years ago, I had my hair cut really short. In the mirror I looked elfin, with fine features and huge eyes. In photos, I looked butch and my hair looked like it had been cut with a lawn mower.

My face is pretty.... If I have my makeup & hair right. The rest of me makes me want to hide from myself. :(

I felt the exact same way! I didn't even realise how huge I had gotten untill I saw it in a home video. It is what triggered my decision to loose the weight in the first place.

I think that there is some kind of distortion that goes on when looking in a mirror. I remember even when I was younger, seeing a picture of myself and thinking well that doesn't look like me. I think it has something to do with the closeness of a mirror or the fact that a mirror can make anyone look different depending on the angle or shape of the mirror. Like a funhouse mirror but less dramatic.

Ever notice that you look smaller in a department store mirror than in your mirror at home? Same idea.
I also think, for me at least, I was in such denial that I didn't want to see it. But a picture tells a thousand words, right.

I too found pictures to be more brutally honest about how I looked then the mirror. It seems to be a common *problem*.

In fact, looking back, I wish I allowed more pictures of myself to be taken when I was so heavy. Maybe seeing them (me) over and over again would have propelled me to take action sooner.

I was the same exact way as well.
I saw a picture of me and I Thought I looked like the marshmellow guy from ghost busters movie (needless to say that photograph has saved me.) I am Just finally liking the photographs I am seeing after losing 36 lbs~All the other pics showed results but I still felt Creepy ugly in them.Now I am getting more of what I thought I was seeing in the mirror.So keep up the good work & eventually it will all even out ~the mirror And the pics.I think your avatar photo is totally precious by the way!!!

I think people like how they look in the mirror because - when you're checking yourself you're standing up straight and in a completely different way than you are in a lot of pictures - in pictures you're more relaxed or you're standing in a way that's to pose for the picture - not how you pose while you're looking at yourself in the mirror.

A picture was the trigger for me to do something about my weight.

When you look in a mirror it's more of your natural self....a camera catches one instant and like Gretchy said you usually "preen" in front of the mirror where in front of the camera you pose but have no idea about your posture etc since you can't see yourself :)

Agreed, I could not have said that better myself.

Lori, I love the blouse you have on in your new pic! :)

I have the same problem .. which is why like some previous posts have said has prompted me to be here .. when i look in the mirror i see someone who looks NOTHING like i see when i look at pictures taken of me .. I have always deleted pictures of me off my camera but then it upsets me because i want pictures of myself for my children to be able to look back on some day .. so if i want pictures for them i must do one thing to make that happen and that is to lose this weight I'm carrying around!! Every time i want to eat something i know is unhealthy and will stop my weight loss i look at those pictures of myself that disgust me :)

I think that without realizing it, we mentally "photoshop" our mirror images until they're more acceptable.

The camera is more objective. Not completely, though, since it's still reflecting the viewpoint of the person who's holding it & framing the subject.

We like ourselves better than the person photographing us & our vision of ourselves shows this.

Yes I know exactly what you mean ~ but now I am having the opposite problem. I look enormous in the mirror but several times I've had to be in pictures for work or some volunteer stuff I do, and I appear to be a lot smaller in pictures than I am in the mirror. But everyone else is the right size in the picture. So apparently I'm smaller than I look to myself...it's weird.