Even Kim Kardashian gets insecure.
In the December issue of Cosmopolitan U.K., Kim tells editors about how her boyfriend, Kanye West, improves her self-esteem. “He’s great at boosting my confidence. He gives me compliments in every way possible,” she said.
Who wouldn't want a mate who thinks you're amazing and tells you so? And, yet, Kardashian's remark reminded Samantha Escobar of The Gloss of her own tendency to rely too much on her partner to keep her ego afloat.
She wrote, "For the last however many years I’ve been in the dating world, a significant portion of my self-confidence has come from whomever I’ve been dating. Whether it was needing my partner to consistently tell me I’m pretty–otherwise I would feel ugly–or relying on another boyfriend to call me smart because I felt inadequate in school or with writing, I got most of my 'confidence boosts' from other people."
It's a concern HuffPost Women blogger Autumn Whitefield-Madrano has voiced in the past. She, too, knows how it feels to look to a significant other for validation of your appearance. But for her, this has led to concerted efforts to "look the part" -- to present herself as her significant other's ideal partner.
In her post "Relationships And Appearance: How I Stopped Trying To Look The Part," she wrote about an ex-boyfriend, "I wanted to be seen as a part of a team -- his team -- and by styling myself to look the part, I was hoping to become a naturalized citizen of his psychic nation. If I looked like I belonged with him, perhaps I might actually belong with him."
What do you think? How much do you depend on your partner to bolster your self-confidence, about your appearance or other aspects of who you are? Tell us in the comments.