A love letter to my fellow sweaty women
Listen, people sweat. That’s a fact. Boys sweat and it’s seemingly OK with everyone. Girls sweat, and for some reason, it’s less acceptable. I am a very sweaty girl. Anyone who has ever known me has seen me sweat at one point. My other girlfriends who experience the same thing know exactly what I’m going through, and I know how they feel on a daily basis. If you start sweating simply by walking up stairs, or walking into a room, or waking up in the morning: honey, this one’s for you.
At this point in my life, I like to believe that I know my body well enough to figure out how to handle certain situations. I know what will make me start sweating and to what degree. Perhaps there’s that glisten you get at the tip of your hairline when you meet someone new. Maybe after a brisk walk outside you enter a mildly warm room and start accumulating sweat bubbles on your top lip like a glass of ice tea on a hot day.
A couple weeks ago I had a job interview. After finding out I had a ten-minute walk from my car to the office, I just knew that I would be sweating by the time I got there. So I said to myself, “Ashley, you better be early so you can cool down and be dry for your interview.” I did just that. I arrived to the office early, found a shady spot with a breeze and let myself cool down. I felt confident enough to walk inside but as soon as I crossed the threshold, I began sweating profusely. I’m sure nerves had a lot to do with it, but honestly, I was not surprised one bit. It became so bad that I had to make a joke about it to stop my interviewers from staring at the beads of sweat covering my face.
“I know, it’s so warm in here,” one of them (so kindly) said.
“Oh, I’m not hot, this is just what happens,” I smiled and reached for a tissue.
It’s one thing to sweat while working out. But see, after I work out I literally look like I just got out of the shower. Some people don’t sweat at all and I simply don’t understand. It’s a concept that’s maddening to me. I ran a 5K recently and afterward, I naturally looked like I dipped my head in a bucket of water. Yet one of the girls I ran with didn’t sweat AT ALL. Her hair stayed down the entire race and she was dry as a bone at the finish line. A good friend of mine can go through an entire one-hour Barre workout and not have to shower afterwards. She can go straight to work, or anywhere public. That’s amazing—and something I’m never, ever going to be able to do.
I’m here to tell all my fellow sweaty girls out there: It’s OK. You are awesome. Sweating is a normal human response. If you don’t sweat that much, you’re great too. But if you, like me, have ever stepped into a room and had someone stare, then I say, shake it off. You’re human, and that’s part of the deal for some humans. Stand tall and sweaty. You got this.
Ashley Zazzarino is a proud New Jersey native currently living in Los Angeles. She’s a writer & fitness instructor for the pure joy of inspiring people… and shouting at them. She was raised on baseball logic and has a pretty unoriginal fascination with Jim Morrison. You can follow her on twitter at @ashleyzazz.
[Image via Comedy Central]
