I just finished scanning the last of the Telling Secrets postcards and uploading them to our Flickr page.

As I was going through everything, I wondered what people several hundred years from now will think reading through these body image confessions. I wondered what the current fashion industry will be dictating as “beautiful”. How we’ll compare to 2209 standards of beauty, status and pop culture expectations. What will one have to do to be famous in 2209? Will bodies be easily modified? Will we have weeded out all our biological flaws and eventually look related as the result of the pursuit of physical perfection?

I wish I could be around to hear what teens searching our databases will say to each other upon reading about our obsession with fat, height, size, color. Will they pity us or completely relate?

Below is the full postcard collection built by visitors to Girl Culture. Click the play button twice to start the slideshow, and to see better, click the button in the lower right-hand corner of the slideshow that has (4) arrows pointing outward. That will take you to full-screen view. ESC button returns you to normal page size. Pause button is very helpful when reading the longer ones.