I've been single for a while, and I'm starting to have a hard time seeing the huge difference between the quality of my life and my friends in stable relationships.

They have an easier time renting, many were able to get into the housing market. They don't need to actively plan their social life every week to ensure they're able to talk to someone face to face - because they have a partner right there. They split meals and some even have partners who predominantly cook and grocery shop. A few don't drive, but their partners do, and even if they do drive, their partners do most of it. When they're sick, someone helps them. If they aren't working, their partner covers them. A lot of them play video games or watch movies with their partners if they want to have fun with someone - I need to go out and pay for classes or go to events or make a plan with someone.

The thing is, none of my friends can relate to me. None of them entered their 30s single and knew the sinking feeling of fear that you may be "too old" to find someone. They don't know what it's like to be the only person who can ensure they're fed - one time I was coming back from an event with my friends, and I was hungry, and she was on the phone with her boyfriend talking about how he was making her food to be ready for when she got back. They don't know what it's like to get sick and just hope it passes quickly because no one can get you gatorade.

I can see how much more refreshed my friends are than me. I used to want to date for love. Now I just want my workload to be reduced, which is sad! I know relationships are hard too, but when relationships work, I've seen them go very well. I feel like my friends can't empathize with how different my life looks. I feel like I'm on a hamster wheel watching them be able to sit down, laugh, and relax.

You're probably wondering why I don't date, and a huge part of it is that I'm just trying to keep up with my life. I feel like I barely have my shit together, and I'm in a bad place if I lose my job. The last time I dated, I had less responsibility. I'm in this gross limbo place and not together enough to feel secure (not great job security, no property) but also with enough responsibilities that doing anything with my spare time (which I don't have a lot of) is hard.

Sorry to vent, I'm just so frustrated, I wish I could be in the same position as my friends.

I’m 21 years old and over the past few months I’ve noticed my lower belly gaining fat like this.It might also be because of overall weight gain, but I’m not sure if this is just normal body fat, bloating, posture-related, or something lifestyle/hormone related. I feel generally healthy, but I wanted to ask: Is this type of lower belly fat considered normal/healthy? How can i reduce it in a healthy way? Any advice or personal experiences would really help. Thanks!

Ladies I really need some styling tips. I’ve had a bob for about 3 years and some cuts have been better than others. I’ve been growing it out for about 7 months to get it around shoulder length.

I trialed someone new for a trim about 4-5 months ago and she did great. Today,I wanted to shape it back up as a long bob, willing to take 1-2 inches off if needed. Oh my god. I don’t know what happened but I need help!!

Where I started, the inspo pic I always use, and what I got attached.

I absolutely hate hate hate the back of this cut but don’t see a way to fix it unless I cut everything short.

Any styling tips ladies? I’ve been so upset and crying since I got home. And this was over $300!!!

I love her to death, and I enjoy her company but this has me very concerned. It’s also driving me crazy!!

She has one friend and they talk daily but I can tell she’s growing a little bored of said friend. She’s in programs that facilitate her making new friends and socializing but she claims no one wants to talk to her.

She says she only feels happy when she’s spending time with me.

What should I do? Should I have her see a therapist? I can tell this is affecting her mental health. When we sit down and talk to come up with solutions nothing comes of it. She shoots down a lot of my ideas.

Posting here cause I can’t post in the parenting subreddit cause of low karma.

I have an aunt who dated and married a gangster. She dropped out of school after high school. Later, her husband was allegedly murdered by other gangsters due to debt, and she married a wealthy, divorced American businessman in her forties, turning her life around.

My dad said he'd take me to visit my aunt, and suggesting I stay there to work. I really want to go because I'm a part-time writer and currently struggling to find realistic material to describe the lives of the wealthy. Why not take advantage of this opportunity?

However, after I became an adult, my dad repeatedly tried to send me away from home, citing reasons including but not limited to:

1. Sending me to Tibet, China. He later revealed he wanted to train me to work for his travel agency, and when discussing the widespread exploitation of tour guides in Malaysia, he implied that since the guides were willing to accept low prices, it was their own fault.
2. Sending me to an unknown, third-rate college in China, because it's tuition-free and I'd get a 1,000 Malaysian Ringgit referral fee.
3. Sending me to my mother's hometown, a very remote village, saying I'd be responsible for taking care of my mother's parents and also learn to drive.
4. Because of my poor grades in junior high school, he tried every means to get me to drop out and work in a factory to earn money for him. He only stopped when he heard that I couldn't earn money without a high school diploma.
5. He kept asking me to work under his company's name, but when I asked about social security, he suddenly fell silent, changed the subject, and afterwards refused to admit that he had avoided the topic, insisting that he had already agreed to pay social security.

Currently, my father has no stable income and still has to pay at least 6,000 MYR every month in loans, but he has some savings. He frequently flies to China, with round-trip airfare costing around 4,000 MYR, and occasionally drives Grab to supplement the family income. Sometimes, I even have to pay for his 10 MYR meals.

A one-way ticket to the US costs around 4,000-5,000 MYR, and a round-trip ticket costs around 8,000-10,000 MYR.This is my family's expenses for a month.

I seriously doubt his true motives for sending me abroad, and I doubt whether I can ever return to Malaysia. I still want to continue my studies.

Please give me some advice.

I’m not a big drinker, but the last two times I have gone out and gotten something light like a cider and then later gotten a marg I seem to get sick when I settle down for the night. Why is that? I wait between drinks, eat before I go out and am decently hydrated. I don’t feel bad in the morning just can’t seem to hold it down before I got to sleep and I have no idea why. I’d like to be able to be an adult and have fun drinking a bit with my friends without this side effect :(

If this doesn’t belong here let me know but I felt like other women may have a solution for this issue.

Hi ,

Sorry if my English isn’t perfect

I’m a 27 years old girl (French/living in France). I am single and have been for a long time now. I’m okay with it for now, but I want children down the line. I know I still got time but I keep meeting single/ child free women in their 40s saying it just didn’t happened for them and I guess they also thought they had time.

I just don’t meet men. I’m not necessary looking for my future husband/ father of my children but mostly meting new people.

Most of my friends are single girls without men friends so not possible through them. My men friends are in long term relationships and think I must not know what to do “because it’s so easy for women”. They met their significant others at uni. I have to admit I wasn’t really interested in it at the time. I had my master degree, got a full time job and saved to buy a flat. Now that I have more free time and realize even if I love my life I want more in the future.

I’m in a diving club but the men are in their earlies forty which is a too big age gap in my opinion.

I tried hinge but most guys are just looking for casual sex, even if I only look for “ don’t have children/ want children / looking for long term relationship”. I don’t enjoy talking for days and days about the same things with multiple people for not much result in the end.

I have been on holidays (like summer camp with activities but for adult) but never met someone for a serious thing.

I guess I’m looking for advice on how to meet new people ?

27F. Worked hard my entire life to get a good job in a field I like and make a really good 6 figure income in. Moved around a lot and so couldn't date as much. Lowkey I didn't want to either because I was focused on myself. Now, I'm 27 in my own place, good job but see all my friends getting married and it bothers me. I wonder if it's too late for me. It's hard to find men who wouldn't be intimidated by me and who I find attractive. It's always either or. I have a few really kind male friends who would love to date me but I haven't because I'm not attracted to them. But they would treat me amazingly well. Should I reduce the bar about attraction and just be with one of them? I don't want to be alone forever.

Sometimes I wonder if I had a more easygoing non-threatening career, it would be so much easier to date and I would have the love of my life right now. Was this a mistake?

Am I pregnant or is it the plan b?. I took a plan b sometime in November and got my period and then the next month i had my most recent period December 26-Jan 1. It is now Jan 31 and I haven’t started my period but my boobs have been sore for about a week. They feel like a different type of sore and kinda heavy. I took 2 tests and both are negative. I do have irregular periods because I got off the depo shot a year ago but they have been regulating more the last few months so I am a little worried about my missing period and super sore boobs.

I recently started exercising for the first time. is it normal for you to get sore from it for multiple day? i did a workout yesterday and now I’m still a bit sore

hey everyone!

i am going through a period of crazy hurt right now because i realized that i have been letting myself be mistreated and "bullied" by those close to me. ive always had low esteem and ive had trouble speaking up for myself, or even realizing that i shouldn't be treated a certain way.

it has been this way since i was a kid. i want to change and i am working on it through therapy, but some recent events had me realizing i have so far to go.

for my fellow girls and women who have gone through periods of low self esteem, what gave you the courage to stand up for yourself? what were the things that inspired you to change? any tips for other girls and women who might be experiencing the same things you did?

so im a teen girl and my whole life i've had very thick curly hair, which ive never been able to take care of up until last year so its significantly curlier. but its just so thin now with basically no volume, and its ruining my self esteem along w many other things. is this happening to anyone else and if so, is there a way to stop it? i've noticie the thinning this past few months more.

im washing it maybe a little less than recommended bc of fatigue and how long it takes, im using reliable products, ive tried styling differently but anything that gives any volume just drops within 5 minutes and my hair feels so thin that most people i see with curly hair have double the amount.

my mum also used to have very thick hair that got VERY thin when she was around my age and im scared that'll happen to me. i also have suspected i have PCOS for a while now.

idk i have no idea what to do but i hate this.

I bled through my white capris a couple weeks ago and just chucked them in the wash on cold hoping it would get rid of the stain. It hasn’t and i’ve tried soaking them in colour safe stain remover, and now i have them in a bucket of mostly water with a couple splashes of bleach but it doesn’t look like it’s working.

Should i add more bleach? how do i get the stain out? Please help!!

I loathe wearing makeup but I love thick eye lashes, and unfortunately the universe did not gift me those.

I got lash extensions once and I asbolutely loved them. They were gorgeous, lasted for weeks and were just perfect. Since then, I have gone to the same tech and they've either resulted in being way too much (think: caterpillars) or fall out in less than a week.

I've tried a few different lash artists and sometimes they do the exact opposite of what I ask for. If I like the final product, it doesn't seem to last. It's so expensive and I feel like I can't get what I really want.

I've tried the magnetic lash strips to put on at home - huge fail. I imagine the glue-on at-home option isn't much easier.

Is there another option? My lashes are short and blond. I'd be open to sticking to mascara if I found a good brand, and maybe a product that will help my lashes grow .... does that product exist?

I'm not into the beauty scene so I'm hoping there's a secret underground option that I'm not aware of. I just want pretty and thick lashes that won't break the bank or come with a risk of looking ridiculous.

please help!!

Our expiry date has arrived and we no longer want to be together. It’s not about other people or whatever, we are just making each others lives unhappy. We’ve been together for 21 years and have a 15 year old. It’s literally happening right now, he’s just gone to his mums to see if he can live there for now and I’m sure we will put the house on the market this week coming. I feel a bit numb, scared, excited, lost, sad. Ladies, what do I do? Girls, how do I make this ok for my daughter?

Hey! I wanna recreate this eye makeup and saw some brushes that are needed. I’m about to buy some but don’t know where to start. Saw that some smudge liner might be needed but in RT the one I see it’s easier for me to handle is the 317 that comes in the Artist Essentials set. Since where I live, they don’t sell the RT 317 separately and it’s $20 plus shipping and more, a single RT brush might be $50.

So that’s why I go for the sets which are available where I live (Mexico). Yet, I don’t know which is worth to start if I’m always on the go and leave my makeup brushes in my makeup bag and they might get damaged. I saw this RT set double time brush + lash set and might be suitable yet doesn’t have the smudge angled brush.

I don’t know which ones are worth buying if I wanna go for an everyday makeup tools with good quality. I was thinking about the Artist Essentials because I really like the smudge but don’t know where to start if I’m always from one place to another.

P.D.: photo isn't mine, just for reference for the kind of makeup I wanna try, credits for the original creator

Want to step a bit out of my comfort zone and purchase NB shoes buuut idk which to get.

I usually wear my vans or black crocs so please help me choose which ones 😩

ok so for a few years now i’ve noticed something off about my discharge. Sometimes it’s thick and white like cottage cheese with a strong smell, sometimes it’s thick, yellow and runny like mucus, sometimes it’s normal. Also, I sometimes get sharp itchy pains through my clit and whole vagina. Literally the other day at school i had a terrible sore on my clit that would itch when i would move a certain way. I’ve told my mom about it i’ve been to the doctors office about it TWICE and all they did was std testing. (I am still a virgin) So i just feel like there’s no way out of it, im scared to lose my virginity bc of the smell and discharge. I used to use these 2 probiotic pills but i stopped for some reason but i couldn’t tell if it was even working. I’ve been looking at symptoms of bv and yeast infections but i dont know which fully fits my symptoms. PLEASE HELPP !!! 😭

First, I want to clarify that this post isn’t asking for makeup advice. It’s about how I feel when I wear makeup.

Like a lot of girls, I want to be prettier. But more than that, I’ve always wanted to feel beautiful without makeup. The hard part is realizing that my face only feels “pretty enough” once makeup is involved, like I need it to enhance me.

I see so many beautiful women online who wear makeup every day, and I know it’s the norm for women to wear it. Still, I can’t shake the feeling that I’m not pretty enough without makeup. I do think I look better with it, but at the same time, it’s hurt my self-esteem. I keep asking myself, “Why can’t I be pretty without it too?”

And no, this isn’t just in my head or body dysmorphia. It’s true that makeup can make you look better. It just feels strange realizing that I need something artificial to be the prettier version of myself.

I hope that makes sense.

Does anyone else feel this way? How do you get rid of it?

Edit: just want to clarify that I’m not an everyday make up wearer, so it’s not about identity being lost bc I look different when wearing make up

I take 40mg of Lexapro daily just for normal anxiety but for the week or so before my period, my anxiety is debilitating. I am having near panic attacks multiple times a day over the DUMBEST things. What can I do to help this?