Growing up with social media is a blessing and a curse, all wrapped up in a complicated bow of empowerment and insecurity and finished off with a Valencia filter. #LuckyGirl!
Lauren Pattison by Andy Hollingworth
It can be incredibly difficult to embrace who you are and love the skin you’re in when all around you are images of beautiful women NAY absolute goddesses whose skin you think you’d much rather be in. What you’d give to swap your little legs for that girl over there who’s limbs go on for longer than your Mum does when you’re trying to hang up the phone, or to have a complexion like that girl who you don’t even know - but you check her Instagram daily - and has skin smoother than the chat up lines Kevin from HR tried on you at the office Christmas party.
We are FAR too quick to tear ourselves apart and fixate on flaws that only exist in our own brains. I think it’s time to stop comparing ourselves to others – especially when half the time we’re comparing ourselves against people who’ve been photo shopped and filtered into versions of themselves even they don’t fully recognise as being them. They’re real people but a lot of the time the pictures we see don’t capture real life. We need to start realising we’re bloody brilliant just the way we are. Every little bit of you is perfectly you. Take away a piece of the jigsaw and you’re left with a picture that is missing something essential to who you are. Those freckles you hate? They’re GORGEOUS. The jiggle in your belly? It’s PERFECT. The gap in your teeth that drives you mad? There’s someone out there who’ll go CRAZY for it.
I’m in my early twenties and I have probably wasted hours of my little life looking in the mirror feeling inadequate, or agonising over photos of myself and googling where to buy a bag to put over my head that will certainly improve my looks tenfold. I don’t want to waste any more time. I don’t want to get to my thirties and look back and be mad at myself for all the time I wasted feeling like a troll, when all along I was a bloody Queen and just couldn’t see it because I was too busy wishing my boobs were bigger to notice my bum is pretty peachy. Too busy stressing over my teeth not being perfectly straight to see what perfectly nice eyes I’ve got. Too busy wishing my skin wasn’t covered in psoriasis to notice that very psoriasis is just leopard print and it’s unique, just like me.
I know it’s so much easier said than done, but I made this mentality a big focus in my Edinburgh show this year Lady Muck. After finding myself properly single for the first time in 4 years, alone, and in a brand new city hundreds of miles from home, I realised how much I’ve relied on other people to feel good about myself over the years, when really the main person I need to make sure loves every inch of me, is me. She’s the one who has to put up with me 24/7 after all! Fuelled by heartbreak and hangovers, Lady Muck is all about breaking up, breaking down, and piecing together who you are. I've tried to make something that's honest, with a sweet exterior and a deliciously dark heart, and it will hopefully resonate with a lot of women - and men!
It is so important to love the skin you’re in because it’s YOURS. It’s a one of a kind (unless you’re a twin but let’s not ruin this metaphor too much), custom made just for you and let me tell you – nobody wears it better than you do.
LAUREN PATTISON is performing her debut hour “LADY MUCK” at the Edinburgh Fringe 2017 at the Pleasance Courtyard, The Attic on Wednesday 2nd August – Monday 28th August. You can buy tickets here https://www.pleasance.co.uk/event/lauren-pattison-lady-muck#overview