I want kids but Im starting to panic because Im 37 and never had a boyfriend

A woman approaching her 40s says she’s never had a boyfriend – and is “trying not to panic” as she would like to start a family.Kristabel Plummer, 37, began feeling the pressure to find a boyfriend after reading teen magazines aged 16.Throughout her teens and twenties, she feared not having a serious boyfriend would mean she was labeled “weird” – but she found it difficult to make it past a second or third date.Kristabel says she also experienced racist and problematic comments while dating in her late twenties – which stopped her from going on dates with men she’d meet online.She previously says she wouldn’t date someone under 5ft 10in – as she is 5ft 6in herself – but has now lowered her wish list in an effort to meet the right man.Now, she lives alone and despite still going on first dates, Kristabel doesn’t feel any pressure to settle down and start a family.Kristabel, an influencer, from north London, said: “I am trying to stay positive – there’s lots of women who have kids later, and in their forties – but to make it to a fourth date with someone would be amazing.“I jokingly say ‘this is a failure’ – but it isn’t, it’s just a part of my story.“Dating in my late twenties versus now is so different – I used to feel like it was the end of the world if I was ghosted or rejected by someone.“But now I don’t really cry and I deal with things quite quickly.”When Kristabel was in her teens, in the late 1990s to early 2000s, she began reading teen magazines like ‘Sugar’ and ‘J-17’.She says attitudes towards young girls at the time meant she felt the pressure to act more mature than her age and to find a boyfriend.In reality, she didn’t start “crushing on” boys until she was 16 – and found it hard to meet them, going to an all-girls school in Bromley, greater London.“You do start to think: ‘This is something I should aim for,’ when you’re 13 and you read those magazines,” Kristabel said.“...