I have no confidence in my body so how can I ever have a relationship?

Dear Coleen

I’m 25 and have zero self-confidence.

There is literally no part of my body I’m happy with. I used to like my eyes (not including eyebrows), but a mishap with false eyelashes has put an end to that, too.

How do I try to improve how I feel about myself, as I am still single and a virgin. I can’t think of anything worse than someone seeing me naked.

I don’t want to be alone forever, but if I continue like this I’ll never meet anyone.

I don’t get out much, which also limits my opportunities to meet a potential partner. Any tips you have would be very much appreciated.

Coleen says

Why are you focusing just on your appearance? You could have the best body (and eyebrows) in the world, but ultimately you – your personality – is what’s going to attract the right partner who will love you warts and all.

No one is completely happy with how they look. It’s in our DNA to pick holes in ourselves. And if we didn’t have any flaws and loved everything about ourselves, we’d be very vain, boring people.

You have to change your mindset and focus on the positive things (of which I’m sure there are many). You’re so wrapped up in everything you don’t like, you’ve forgotten the good things, or you’re just not spotting them. Maybe friends and family can encourage you to see how great you are.

Being confident in who you are is one of the most attractive qualities of all and will draw people to you.

There’s only one way to get better at socialising: do more of it. The more you do it, the less scary it becomes and the less you’ll worry about how you look.

Even if you have to fake confidence at first, you’ll get to a point where you realise you’re not having to fake it.

Trust me, as you get older (and everything starts drooping) you’ll regret wasting this time worrying about your thighs or your eyebrows.