LC Dave,
I agree with all these great guys. I for one started getting stretch marks as a little girl. It took me months to get the courage up to ask my Mom what they were. But the biggest ones I have were from my pregnancies. I have scars that are an inch wide. So nothing will change that. They have faded, but I never will be wearing anything showing my abdomen. I accept that...and would be modest anyway...even if I had no scars.

I think that we should focus on being healthy. And scars are not a health risk. Being overweight is. The scars are just evidence of skin stretching...that's all. I've seen skinny people with stretch marks. So you don't have to be obese to have them. I don't like them, but I accept them. I had a nurse tell me it was mainly because of my nationality...if I wasn't so dang white I wouldn't have such terrible scars. What can I say? My mexican sister in law has hardly any stretch marks and is 6 years older than me and looks way younger. It's her skin. So as Bill says, we accept what we cannot change. When I was younger, it bothered me way more. Now it's not a big issue. I think I'm bothered more by my gray hair. Maybe acceptance comes with age. Not that I'm terribly old...but I think I'm old enough to have learned to accept myself. Victoria