Page 7 - Working Copy Beauty Fashioned Simply - Flip book

Grace’s Story

As you read this workbook you will hear about Grace’s journey. Grace is 40 years old with a
college degree. She is a wife, mother of two, and works full time in middle management at a large
corporation in the medical industry.
Grace’s goals in life are focused on creating a balanced life between her family, personal needs, and
career. She is always looking for challenging projects and positions which will allow her to learn
and grow. For Grace, the meaning of success is being strong, confident, and diving deeper into
meaningful work.
All of her life, Grace has had a hard time finding clothes that fit. She has the classic pear shaped
body. Her hips are the widest part of her body, followed by her shoulders. Her waist is the
smallest.

Her legs and butt are more muscular. Understand this, Grace is not overweight by any stretch of
the imagination. Her bone and muscle structure give Grace this shape. Grace doesn’t know this,
but when looking at the bone and muscle structure of most women, they are pear shaped. This
body shape lends itself best for carrying babies and giving birth.
Pants are the hardest article of clothing for her to find. When they fit her hips, the waist has big
gaps. But when the waist fits, the pants won’t go over her hips. Every once in a while, Grace finds
pants fitting a little better; but she doesn’t find them often. When she does, they are mostly in
black. The perfect pair of pants for Grace are an elusive dream at best.
Tops for Grace are also hard to find. When they fit the shoulders, very often they’re too small in
the hips. If they fit in the hips, then the shoulders are way too big. Lately, Grace has tried knits for
top and bottom. This solution only goes so far.
Because clothing rarely looks “OK” on her, Grace hates to shop. Even worse, Grace hates her
body. This self-loathing has decreased Grace’s self-confidence. Stolen any feeling of empowerment.

Grace’s solution? Hide her body as much as she can. Wear her clothes until they are threadbare.
As a result of having such a hard time finding clothes that fit, Grace has developed a bad body
image. Decided she isn’t enough as a woman. Grace believes the skewed vision of beauty the
fashion industry markets so well.

Grace accepted the idea there must be something wrong with her. This acceptance of a bad body
image created a feeling of despair. Spread into the other parts of her life like a cancer.

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