The Gym Girl Isn’t Perfect

So there’s this girl who goes to my gym. We take a lot of the same group fitness classes and always stand near each other. She was a “regular” long before I became a “regular.” She knew the warm-ups by heart and the teacher always flirted (OK, flirts—he definitely still does it) with her before class started. She’s not overly friendly, but she’s not rude either.

For a long time I thought she was perfect. Long brown hair, pretty face, big boobs, skinny arms, a tiny waist and an endless supply of fun-colored fitted workout tops. Oh, and she’s got a rock on her finger that’s roughly the size of Antarctica. And I’m barely exaggerating here.

Now, I’m not an insecure person by any means. I’m happy with what I’ve been given in the body department. (I also work pretty hard for it, and have learned to love—eh, like, live with and appreciate—my imperfections.) But I do definitely get “body envy” or “face envy” or “hair envy” and even “brain envy” every now and then.

I digress. Last week, before class started, she was talking quite loudly to her friend. So she was going on and on about how mad she was at her husband-to-be, how she hates all of his friends and how his entire family hates her and is making wedding planning a complete Hell for her. Interesting.

Then I realized, she has hardships, too.

Don’t we all?

Everyone always says that pretty people get treated better—or at least differently—than “normal/regular” people. Didn’t Tyra Banks attempt to prove that when she wore a fat suit around for a day?

But the fact remains that no matter how pretty someone is, they probably have issues, too. Whether it’s family issues, work issues, self-esteem issues or boy drama issues, they’re still issues, and they affect us all.

I wasn’t happy to hear Pretty Gym Girl put on a loud show for the whole room about all the drama in her life. But it was interesting. We shouldn’t assume things about someone’s entire life based on how they look. My bad.

And then later, after class ended and everyone filed into the locker room, I was at my locker, right across from hers. And she was wearing Spanx underneath her gym clothes.

So there you go.

Nobody’s perfect. But I bet you’re pretty darn close.

DISCUSS: Do you get body envy? How do you deal?