Give yourself the look of love

IN my twenties, I was so much more confident in my appearance than I have been in my thirties.

After having children and crossing the 35 barrier, something just disappeared, and over the past year, lockdown hasn’t helped.

The past week we have been planning a photoshoot for my podcast and we’ve been talking to a stylist and make-up artist. I felt that shy, reserved girl in me crawl into a ball, dreading having to act naturally in front of a camera and worried about how long it will take to airbrush me afterwards!

I’m so typically British – you know, reserved, poker-up-yourbottom type who almost comes across as prudish at times. Sometimes I need to just let go and care less about what people think of me but it isn’t easy.

I’ve had plenty of photoshoots in my radio career and I’ve never found them easy. In my head I keep asking myself: “When will they find out? I don’t belong here,

I’m a fraud. I remember a particular shoot for a breakfast show where I actually liked the pictures until I received a phone call from my then-boss telling me that my lips just looked too big on the poster so they were going to have to change the colours and font. I was mortified.

Then there was the time a woman in a chip shop said: “You look much prettier in real life than in your photos.” I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I mean, how do you respond to that?

There is beauty in all of us but along the way women have been picked apart... too big, too small, large behind, too many lines, and these negative thoughts become ingrained.

We chat to a lot of celebrity women on my podcast about how after a certain age and becoming a mum they felt invisible and jobs can become harder to obtain and it fills me with rage. We have some incredibly gorgeous women in their 50s showing us all how to be fabulous at any age, Davina Mccall looks incredible as does my podcast co-host Jenny Powell – she’s 52 and looks about 22! The best thing is that they are unapologetic about it, and totally proud of how they look and so they should be – we all should be.

It doesn’t matter if you are having a photo taken for work or a family photo you should all feel fabulous and confident and, yes, I do need to take my own advice. Life is so short, one day we will look back on photographs and reel in the fact that we did look fantastic but feel saddened that at the time we didn’t actually realise it.

Kelly Pegg is a journalist and broadcaster and mum of two who lives in Nottinghamshire with her family. She hosts the podcast The Hot Mess Mums’ club with TV presenter Jenny Powell. You can find it on Instagram @ thehotmessmums