My friend told me the other day, how her daughter, who is in her 20s, gained weight and then after a while lost it again.

When she lost weight she got lots of compliments and comments from people saying how amazing she looked. That really bothered her. She was angry that people saw her as “a body” and not for who she really was.

That made me think, why do people do that?

Why is it important to us how we look and how others look? Wouldn’t it be better if we were only judged by what is on the inside, judged by our character?

Well, yes… but is that achievable? Maybe it would help to understand why we judge each other by our looks.

I’ve done quite a bit of digging, and one of the reasons I found is that on a very basic level, judging people by appearance means putting them quickly into categories, like deciding whether an animal is a dog or a cat. In ancestral times, it was important to avoid people who looked angry and dominant, so quick stereotyping was of life-and-death importance, and humans developed the ability to gauge other people within seconds.

To summarise, it’s deeply ingrained in our old brains, we are wired to pay attention to the looks and put each other into categories.

The truth is, that we are all different. We have different builds, different genes. Some of us suffer from thinking that we are too skinny, others, that we are too big. I really wish that we accept ourselves and others for who we are.

SO WHAT CAN BE DONE TO MOVE FORWARD AND JUDGE LESS?

The way we think about body stereotypes and beauty standards has progressed. We now see a much bigger variety of models, of all shapes, colours and ages.

And this is exactly what will help: normalising our different bodies, accepting all the ages and shapes. More pictures we see out there of different shapes, whether that being the leads in the shows and movies, models of clothes campaigns, or influencers on social media - faster we will learn that it’s normal to be just the way we are.

Below are 7 brands, celebrating those differences (which actually look good and are well made):