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No even though I was in pageants as a kid. It was stressed pretty heavily by my mom on how to "look pretty" on stage (how to position my feet, roll my shoulders back, make eye contact with the judges, smile, etc), but outside of the pageant world, looks/appearances didn't matter. I dressed in full on matching sweat outfits up until like 5th grade shoo!

I think because of this, I'm not very girly even now, and don't know how to "dress" nicely since clean, nice pair of looking pants and a shirt will do was the mentality growing up.

No, absolutely not. Neither of my parents were (or are) into fashion, dressing for style, etc. We didn't have a lot of money when I was growing up so a lot of our clothes were hand-me-downs or bought, like, at Wal-Mart or something. My mom doesn't do anything to her hair to style it, and doesn't wear much makeup, so I never had much experience with that, either.

It wasn't until I got to middle school (a private, all-girls school) that I even realized I was "supposed" to care about what I looked like.

Even in my late 20s I still have a hard time figuring out what is stylish and what looks good on me, and I hardly ever do my hair or wear makeup.

However, I can't say that I 100% attribute it to the way I grew up, because I have two sisters and they both seem to understand fashion naturally and they always look well put together. So maybe it is just the way I am?

My brothers used to tease me mercilessly about my nose being on the large side. My middle brothers friends used to call me his "Jewish sister". It was awful and I still have body image issues about it.

My parents are both very judgy about overweight people and have always made comments in that regard. It definitely impacted me as a person since I was very weight-focused my whole life and battled various eating disorders until my mid 20's.

My mom was always way too concerned about what I was wearing. I think she really wanted me to dress like I was 40 all the time. I hated it. I'm more of a creative free spirit than she would like.

With my son, I'm way lenient. I let him pick out his clothes, and I don't really care if he doesn't match...even though my mom seems to be way too concerned about it. I prefer to let him express himself. I figure he'll either pick it up and care about clothes, or be like me and worry about what's inside rather than outside.

My mom and grandma gave me a love of clothes shopping, but I wouldn't say they focused on looks/clothes... maybe my grandma... I've always loved trying new outfit combos and I get sick of my clothes really quickly, so I tend to buy new clothes frequently, but I don't spend a lot on the pieces. I was never really into makeup and hair and I'm still not, unless it's a special occasion.

@yin: Oh jeez that's awful.

My mom tried very hard for me to not focus on my looks. I wore my brother's hand-me-downs until grade 9! I didn't discover girl clothes until grade 10! I also wasn't allowed to wear makeup or even pluck my eyebrows until grade 13!

It wasn't my mother but HER FRIENDS who would either say, 'Oh! Look how pretty you are, you lost weight!" or "Oh, you've gained weight, I see." Things like that REALLY got to my brain especially since I hit puberty at age 12-13 and got super fat after being super skinny. Eating disorders galore for 2+ years. I still have body image issues.

woooooo....these comments make me feel lucky to have the mom I did. Some of these things are horrifying! I was not a skinny kid, just average....but luckily, my mom didn't make comments about my weight at all. She did talk a lot about healthy foods, but not necessarily in a "diet" type way. We never had sugar cereals, chips, sodas, cookies, etc. in the house.

TOO bad that part didn't rub off more on me!

But Clothes.....all the girls in my family share a love of clothing and shopping, even though all of our tastes are different. My mom would always let me pick my own clothes at our big shopping moments (back to school and christmas) and she would let me be fairly adventurous. My mom is super supportive when it comes to fashion----which is why wedding dress shopping was not stressful at all to me. I could put on a paper bag and she would tell me what's good about it and then tell me I will look good in whatever.

She's definitely not the type to tell me a certain type of dress makes me look fat, or that a certain style isn't for my body type. Now...I do have a brother that will tell me honestly if something looks good or doesn't on me. For a straight guy, he has good fashion sense.

Never. Beauty wasn't valued or recognized at all unless it was in nature. I think that's why I eventually prized natural beauty above other forms.

Wow, I feel so terrible for you ladies whose parents made such awful comments about weight! I can't imagine how hurtful that would be.

And my mom was a single mom for a long time and grew up fairly poor, so she's always been super thrifty. She still gets most of her clothes at the thrift store and I can't imagine has ever had an item tailored. She almost never wears makeup and its a fight to get her to put on a bra. But I think she's beautiful and free and she's always made her children feel so confident because she's focused on our inner beauty above all. My mother would never ever critique our looks, or anyone else's.