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We fellows go through he same garbage that you ladies do.

Thank goodness that 95% of the comments I received were flattering. However, more often than I would have liked, people, girls especially, would tell me unflattering things about my body, me being short and skinny. Even when I ultimately filled out, young girls and women would sometimes find it necessary to remind me, at 5'8", that I was still short.

These things have stuck with me all my life. But growing up with a positive self image, intelligent, athletic, great parents, a healthy track record of success, and my understanding of the human psyche have afforded me the ability to understand why such negative things were being said in the first place.

It didn't, really. When I was in high school, I was a scrawny little nerd in most classical senses (skinny and tall, thick round eyeglasses, combed haircut, academically focused, into video games and computers and all that - pretty much the works), but I never really suffered from the stereotypical problems - I was never bullied, had no problems picking up a few girlfriends, and was generally well-liked. It wasn't until college that I actually started doing something about having a decent build - and even then, it wasn't so much out of a desire to look different as much as an addiction to the incremental improvement of successful weight training.

If my youth serves as any example, it seems that confidence and social success for boys perhaps actually does stem from confidence and attitude rather than from appearance and athleticism (I was definitely a class clown and wasn't shy, so this may have helped). I think a lot of guys theorize that social problems are rooted in their physical appearance that may actually have more to do with shyness, awkwardness or obvious lack of confidence. Girls, on the other hand, seem to endure a lot more in the way of adolescent body image problems - generally, from my observations, at the hands of other girls.

I don't think my body image did affect me growing up. I had major self esteem issues as a youngster/adolescent, but it had nothing to do with my body image.

What had kept me active and (relatively) fit and healthy since then had nothing to do with peer pressure. I just don't want my father's body and health in 30 years or my grandfather's body and health in 50 years.

Not at all. I can honestly say that through most of my life I have spent very little time worrying about what other people think of me. For me it's not about the hand your dealt when your born its what you can achieve with that hand over the course of your life. Some people are dealt a really good hand in life and don't do anything with it. Some people are dealt a really crappy hand and manage to achieve success.

I always remember this saying "life's like diamonds on the footpath, all you have to do is bend down and pick them up". The lucky think for forward thinking people is that most people never do bend down and pick up the diamonds so there's plenty of them don there.

I was a husky - read: fat - kid until I was about 13....I think it was a driving force for me to be dedicated to fitness like I have the last 20 years....being heavy didn't hurt my self-esteem as much as the teasing did. But I did what I had to: I lifted weights, said my prayers, took my vitamins, and believed in Hulkamania and I have been running wild ever since!

I hated being short for a lot of my childhood, and I never liked being skinny through all of my childhood. I wanted bigger muscles. It's sort of carried over to my adult life, but I don't really worry about it much anymore.

i was upset always seeing myself as fat and unappealing so at 9 i started to starve myself, and my grades dropped to a small degree