I'M STILL FABULOUSLY VISIBLE!

Rachel Edwards believes midlife has only made her shine brighter

- RACHEL EDWARDS

As wildly un-PC as it may seem now, when I was 20 I was resigned – like many women – to my breasts doing the talking. Whatever my mouth was saying, it just didn’t seem to command the same attention. This astounded me when I first grew ‘lady lumps’ as a teen. What was it about breasts that drained common sense from otherwise decent males? All these years on, I’m still not sure I fully understand their appeal. And, while I’m still the happy owner of a considerable embonpoint, times have changed now I’m older, as has the response of onlooking men.

As many women know, the blessing of youth and looks can be a double-edged sword. Like so many girls, I lacked body confidence, even struggling with bulimia at one stage of my teens.

From the outside, you’d never have known. I had a big smile, captained the hockey team, loved running the 100 metres and hit straight As at school. But so much of how I judged myself was through what one might call ‘the male gaze’ (and, as a young Black person, ‘the white gaze’, but that’s another article).

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