Scarleteen

Among a sea of more important questions, it seems like a stupid thing for me to be worried about, but it is quite literally driving me crazy. I need some reassurance. (Well, I probably NEED some medication to make me more sane, but I digress.) My facial hair is coming in unevenly, it's driving me nuts, and I'm terrified that it will stay that way and I won't ever grow substantial whiskers on my right side, or any at all. Does facial hair even out as it comes in, or should I just give up on the idea of being able to grow decent whiskers?

It's very common for facial and body hair to be uneven - and to develop unevenly - in the teens and early 20s. There's no physical concern here, and there's every expectation that you'll still have plenty of changes to your facial hair in the coming years. Different people do have different amounts of thickness and coverage, and no body is ever 100% symmetrical, but there's a good chance you'll end up with more evenness than you have at the moment

Do you want to talk about your confidence in your current body, or need any strategies for feeling good about your body as it is right now?

Redskies wrote:Do you want to talk about your confidence in your current body, or need any strategies for feeling good about your body as it is right now?

Well, it couldn't hurt...

Hey findingme,

Glad you asked. Your body is changing literally every day, and will continue to do so for the rest of your life. That's why obsessing about your looks at any given point (whether in a positive or negative way) is never practical, let alone mentally healthy.

Here's a piece about self-care that I hope you will find helpful: Self-Care a La Carte A lot of people think that self-love is something people "have," but it's more accurate and useful to think about it as something people do. Like any skill or ability it improves with practice. When you're young, your identity is all up in the air which makes it hard to feel like you can find a firm anchor within yourself, but that anchor is something that you yourself get to craft, by deciding what kind of person you want to be, and what you want to be remembered for, and then starting to "act like" that person. Take time to appreciate the amazing things your body can do, for yourself and for others, rather than simply what it looks like.

What ways do you practice self care now? What makes you feel good about yourself, and what makes you feel not-so-good?