Body Image.

Ah, to be young and want the body of a fleshless skeleton, to want to eat as much as a toddler and then pride yourself on it.

Let’s get right too it. Everywhere I look, every young girl I talk to, there’s a want, like it’s almost a need, for a ‘better body’ and ‘prettier’ face. It’s a known fact that there’s body image issues in youth.

As someone that’s knewly 18, I want to talk a bit about my own body image when I was young and even know.

At 12, I thought I was too fat, only having up and go’s for breakfast and then spending an hour on the treadmill. Praised for this behaviour by every adult I came across.

At 13, continued the same habit, but adding more into the routine, starting to make myself vomit. I started getting compliments about how good I was starting to look and how hard I was working.

At 14, I started binge eating, feeling horrible with every bite. I started gaining weight rapidly and then being told I let myself go.

At 15, I got a boyfriend and felt I needed to look pretty so I started exercising 2 times a day an hour each time. I started getting praise again and competing in competitions. My coach would tell me only to eat soup to keep my figure.

At 16, I decided to study fitness. A whole new world opened up to me. I was doing everything’s wrong… I wasn’t supposed to be on the diet of a 5 year old. I joined a gym started lifting weights and making peace with my body.

At 17, Started the year off strong, then I was starting to finish high school and stress got to me. I stopped going to the gym as much and then my family started to fat shame. I had ‘let myself go’ once again, I went from 60kg to 75kg and I was told that I should train harder again.

Now at 18, I have come to a conclusion. Parents like to blame the media, peers like to blame it too, but really everyone is concerned with how you look instead of how healthy you are.

From a teenagers perspective, ladies and gentlemen. Stop telling children they need to look a certain way. Stop making comments on their weight if it isn’t a major health concern. My teenage years were taken up on my body image and it even put me behind in my studies.

The problem wasn’t me not understanding this behaviour was damaging, but the toxic beliefs of those around me. I had weighed 60-75kg that whole time. I’m 164cm talk and by no means overweight. Still, I start to think I need to change the way I look, I’m just lucky that I broke out of the not eating cycle and focused more on nourishment.

This whole short spurt is a plead to stop telling your children that they need to exercise more, instead help them understand that there’s different ways to go about it. 30 minutes of their favourite sport is enough. It’s more about eating right and giving the body the fuel it needs to function.

Telling young girls and boys they don’t can’t survive off of 1500 calories and they need more than that to grow.

Please, friends and families of people that are concerned about the weight of others, educate yourselves properly before telling people what they can and can’t do with their bodies. Take them to professionals and get the help instead of making them feel awful about it by making nasty comments.