Would you let me see beneath your beautiful
Would you let me see beneath your perfect
Take it off now boy, take it off now girl
Cause I wanna see inside
Would you let me see beneath your beautiful tonight?
Tonight, see beneath your beautiful
Oh tonight, we ain’t perfect, we ain’t perfect
Would you let me see beneath your beautiful tonight?

From “Beneath Your Beautiful” written by Emeli Sande, Timothy Mckenzie & Mike Posner

This is Peep, the normally long-legged and willowy avatar you see featured on this blog. Today, though, she is a more realistic version with substance and curves. Isn’t she beautiful?

No, I haven’t changed my shape in Second Life permanently. But today I am highlighting a very different Peep for Project Everybody. Lucie Bluebird-Lexington has created this project and in her words, “I wanna see your brave.” The challenge is to portray ourselves as we normally wouldn’t and explain why. Please click the link to read fully about the challenge and check out the links to other posts in the comments section.

I, like a lot of women, have a body image issue in real life. We are conditioned to believe that slim, sleek and fashionable is the ideal. Peep normally fits this mould; she is my ideal and everything I am not. Tall, sleek, even graceful. I developed her shape over a lot of years, and she, in her current form is based on a mesh standard size small. She looks great in clothes, but to be honest, I have always believed she is too skinny in the nude or even lingerie and swimwear, which is why you rarely see her portrayed in those ways.

For this challenge, I adjusted her shape so that she is a mesh standard size large. Additionally, I made her shorter, widened her hips and shoulders and rounded out her face. When I completed the transformation, I dressed her. To show my brave, I went out shopping, rather than hiding her away on the island. But to be honest, I didn’t like the way she looked and even moved in a pair of jeans, tank top and jacket. I even had issues with the clothes fitting properly. All of the sliders were adjusted exactly to a size large, but bits of her were popping out all over the place. The one-size-fits-all alphas that normally work perfectly with my size small didn’t seem to do the job. I was disheartened.

However, I was committed to completing this challenge. When I returned home, I decided that rather than hiding her behind clothing I would dress her in a bikini. And you know what? Even though the alpha didn’t work at ALL, I loved how she looked baring her curves. She looks womanly, rather than like a waif. She looks healthy, rather than underfed. She seems to actually glow with a beauty that comes from within.

When I finished shooting the photo, I went back to my size small shape. But, I kept the roundness of the face and the shorter stature. I didn’t keep the full hip and shoulder width of my more ample figure, but they are broader now than they were before. And I like the changes. This is the first time I have ever made a change to Peep’s face. I always thought it was perfect. I was wrong.

I like this version of Peep. And you don’t have to look beneath to see her beautiful.

Pretty stuff I’m showing off:

Bikini: *BOOM* Hampton Bikini/anchors (sugar) by Aranel Ah
Hair: *ARGRACE* HARUKA – True Red by rika Oyen
Skin: [PXL] Creations [PXL] JADE NAT PetalPink MEB C2 (FR) by Hart Larsson
Hands: Slink Mesh Hands (av) Casual by Siddean Munro
Hand appliers:[PXL] Creations – [ PXL ] Slink Hand Appliers NAT by Hart Larsson
Eyes: Amacci Gaze Eyes – Ocean Blue by Carina Larsen
Lashes: Mon Cheri *MC* “Falsies” Eyelash by Freya Oliveri

Pose: aDORKable Poses: Ella 6 by Adorkable Peapod