The 9-step body negativity detox

Don't like what you see in the mirror? It's time to kick that negative self-image to the curb.

- DOMONIQUE BERTOLUCCI

In Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian makes a deal with the devil to stay young forever. The only thing that shows his true age is a portrait he keeps in his attic. Unlike Dorian, I never made a pact with the devil, and I don't have an aging portrait in my attic. But I do keep a pair of hotpants up there - to remind me of the wasted opportunities of my youth.

I bought these hotpants when I was 20 and working as a model. Every time I put them on, my eyes would zoom in on some perceived fault. A curve here, a dimple there, and I would decide that I didn't look good enough to wear them, so I'd take them off again.

Although I was in an industry that was highly critical of women's bodies, I wasn't any more critical of mine than my non-model friends were of theirs. That is to say that we were all extremely critical of what, with the wisdom of many years of hindsight, can only be described as the perfection of youth.

1. Don't waste your youth

What you do or don't choose to wear to cover your body isn't nearly as important as how you choose to feel about your body. Whatever the changes you are experiencing in your body, the fact is you are aging. It's inevitable. But it's so much better than the alternative.

Remind yourself that whatever your age, not only is focusing on the negatives and feeling dissatisfied futile, in 10 years you will look back on the face or body you have today and wonder why you didn't appreciate it when you had it, and where on earth it went.