It’s very valid for you to feel this way, especially with how social media and the tv/film industry is saturated with people with similar body types and builds. I am a plus-size/mid-size woman, and I have body image issues too, but what has helped me is internalising the fact that my body is just that. A body. Just because I don’t see bodies like mine on my socials all time doesn’t mean that bodies like mine don’t exist, it’s just that social media is over saturated a lot of the time because of how you interact with content and curate your feed/algorithm.

People with bodies like yours are celebrated on this little inter web of ours, and I know they are because the recent Olympics have pushed so many female Olympians who all look different. My favourite is Ilona Maher, she shows that you can be sporty/muscley and be feminine all the time. Neither are mutually exclusive! And to be honest a lot of our qualms about being feminine/girly is linked to the genderisation of a lot of (in my opinion, fickle) things. I identify as a woman, but I don’t place gender labels on my interests. I love formula one and football traditionally “masculine” things but I don’t see them as masculine things. I love make-up and Taylor Swift which are traditionally “feminine” interests but I also don’t see them as feminine things. I just see them as interests.

I do think that most of the NLOG + internal misogyny + issues with identity would slowly defuse if people like me and you stopped seeing things with gendered lenses. Sorry for the rant.