Literally every girl I talk to tells me this. This is depressing. How can this be so apparent? I don't get it. I try to act normally.

Women don't know the difference between shyness and introversion.

Nothing wrong with shyness, it's as normal as any other personality type although more annoying when people choose to point it out to us and present it to be something "different" when we all have varying personality traits, really.

I bet you're slumping or looking down! Anything that makes it seem to observers that you're hiding your face is going to make you look super shy.

I get told this as well

the body feels the need to identify foreign objects within its system much more so than ones it finds homogeneity with.

peoples lives these days are completely constructed around a kind of voluntary roleplay. everyone who differs from the extraverted ideal know they are required to adhere to this image as best as they can, and pretend all is natural. they even convince themselves of this reality. when a notable exception to this appears, it threatens to shatter the fundamental axioms of this pretense. defensive reactions and marginalisation may occur as a tool for justification and continuation of the extraverted lie.

I feel like being aware of you're body language would help here. Making eye contact, smiling (more importantly not frowning), posture are things that sort of give off the shy guy kind of look.

I consider myself introverted, but I think that doesn't mean that you should limit your interaction with others. It just means you're selective about who you do interact with.

self-awareness is possibly the greatest contributor to shyness. consciously fixing body language might work, but a more effective method would be to be so unaware of it that it assumes a naturally comfortable and open position.

Good point. I haven't considered that.
I feel like making myself of the factors at play help me get a handle of a situation better. I'm almost more nervous about any situation if I feel like I'm in the dark. But to your point Fonduman, smooth social interaction requires a certain degree of letting go of your self-awareness and living in the situation. That's the way I see it.

If that doesn't sound like you, kindly disregard my previous advice.

Well that's assuming you have good posture as a foundation. Throughout my life, I've been extremely detached from my posture, body language, manner of speaking, etc. It was my way of dealing with the anxiety, I'd just send myself to parts unknown which resulted in an ADD-like mentality. But my posture would reflect my confidence and personality regardless. When I think about it, and straighten up and fly right, I often get compliments on my chest (shirt) or height. Nowadays, I've moved past all the insecurity, and self conscious thoughts, but my posture does what it always does. It's just a habit that you have to work to break.

You're probably stuck in conversation in your head all the time, which makes you think you're more talkative than you really are. Also, intonation and volume of your voice play a large part in "looking shy". Stop thinking to yourself and turn up the volume of your voice and force yourself to speak more often and more assertively to more people for longer amounts of time.

Best not to put much stock into what women tell you, or what they think about you. People will believe what they need to believe, and probably don't care to think about what kind of life you've lived.

A poem:

-You look so shy!
-Eat shit and die!

At a party years ago, I got the 'You're so quiet greatgarrett2.' Then the girl said she was also shy. She could've felt sorry for me and was just trying to initiate conversation as she went out of her way to sit beside me on the couch....either that or she was just piss drunk and needed someone to talk who, hating awkward silences.

I read somewhere a possible response to 'You look so shy, you're so shy, you're so quiet, etc.' Simply try saying, 'So, what would you like to talk about?' I'm no judge of social engineering as I'm a socially retarded individual so I don't know if that line would work. I have never had the nerve to try it but it might place them off guard and halt the patronizing for a bit.

And "you don't talk much"

I always took it as "It's your job to provide interesting conversation/entertain me, because I'm: not so talkative myself/can't think anything interesting to talk about/a woman". Real extroverts (both genders) usually don't have problem with quiet partner in polite chit-chat.