If I had to tell you I'm a Millennial without telling you I'm a Millennial, I could do it in two words:

Bare midriff!

The craze for low-rise jeans and crop tops started when I was about 10, just hitting puberty. With the style trends and my physical changes, there was suddenly no place for me in clothing stores, changing rooms, or anywhere people could see me (or so I felt at the time). My curvy torso, apple body shape, and healthy weight just felt wrong. So wrong!

It really did a number on my mental health. My torso is the most central part of my body. It faces towards anyone I'm interacting with. There's no way I can hide it or change how it looks. And with a lack of spoons and no internet yet, I wasn't able to do the research to "dress for my body" as I was urged to.

The body positivity movement has done a lot to help me embrace my shape, and the affirmation has changed my life for the better. So has learning I am autistic and finding autistic friends who aren't overly fussed about clothes or evaluating me based on how I dress. Even one of my friends who has clothes as a special interest sees me as me, not my wardrobe or on my shape. I feel a lot more relaxed and able to be myself. My self-concept has been able to expand to include more positive things than just my body or how I dress.

I still have stress around the shape of my torso and shopping, for example, around special events like weddings. But my expanded awareness of myself and my self-concept means that my shape, weight, and wardrobe, and how they happen to show up at that one event, are no longer life-defining in the way they used to. My relationship with my torso is not perfect, but it's much more manageable.

Share questions:

• What is your present relationship with your torso, and how does it fit into your self-esteem and sense of self? 
• Have your thoughts and feelings about your torso changed over time? 
• Why have they changed? Was it due to outside influences, like the body positivity movement? Interactions with other individuals and groups, like finding affirmative friends? Self-care, like expanding your self-concept so body image is only one part of it? Other? 
• Has your relationship with your torso changed since you learned you are autistic? 
• Any tools, resources, or strategies to share? 
• Anything else to add?