Body Shaming Thoughts From a “Skinny” Girl

“You are so skinny, I am worried about you. Do you even eat?”

“You are so skinny, you must workout 5 hours every day.”

“You are so skinny, I hate you.”

Would you like to hear that on a consistent basis? Do you think it would make you feel good? Would you take it as a compliment? Well, let me tell you a little something, straight from this “skinny” girl’s mouth.

I don’t like it, it doesn’t make me feel good, and unfortunately, I don’t take it as a compliment.

Think about replacing skinny with fat in those statements above, and hear me out on this.

Lately, the media thinks it’s cool to throw around this talk about body shaming. If you haven’t heard the term before, I will fill you in. It’s verbally picking apart someone’s body, in a negative way, based on appearance alone. So the media says, “Let’s body shame the fat people”, and they do, by picking apart plus sized models, comedians, and even an obese woman who posted her maternity photos! They say, “Let’s body shame the skinny people”, may they be a celebrity, an athlete, or an instagram super star. Then they say, “And let’s body shame everyone in between”, because sometimes they run out of fat or skinny people to talk about. Where does it end? Why did body shaming happen at all??

As a woman and mother, it’s easy to criticize myself on my looks. There is a lot out there to compare myself to, especially with this massive market of social media, (aka. the devil).  Don’t you agree? But in doing so, I am killing not only my own self-confidence, but that of both my daughters. Did you ever think about how your daughters look at you when you look at yourself in the mirror? Then, think about how they would then look at themselves in the mirror, because it’s a reflection of you!

(Do you look at yourself as the reflection on the left or on the right?)

Body shaming grew because we let the thoughts that we have about ourselves become true through the media.

As a fitness professional for three years now, I have found some perspective on this, by learning not to judge the book by it’s cover, and to have something called compassion for my clients.

Here’s what it comes down to; everyone has their own story, and judging them superficially on their looks alone is where body shaming stems from. I have a lot of clients, and they all start out differently. They might be overweight for any number of reasons, but it doesn’t change who they are as a person. They might have an injury they are working around which has caused them to gain weight, but they need to become stronger to help heal themselves before they can be active again. I also have women who come to me to gain some muscle weight. The body scenarios are endless for everyone, so why is it ok to judge someone just by looking at them? We as mothers, women, and people in this world all have a story.

Instead of letting the media tear us down, let’s band together and build each other up! Who’s with me?!

XOXO- Jenna

(If you want to body shame this- then you are in the wrong place. I hope to raise strong, confident daughters who get that strength and confidence from their mama!)

PS in case you were wondering: Yes, I eat… A LOT, and no, I do NOT workout 5 hours a day, and even if you dislike me, because you are judging me by my cover, I still love you!