Stop the Body Shaming.

This post is something I've been wanting to write for quite awhile actually. It's something that I've experienced personally and I know others have as well. It seems that no matter how skinny or curvy you are that you will never escape the hurtful comments and body shaming. I used to be really overweight and I can honestly say that I never got as many hurtful comments as I have being slim. I'm  Naturally petite at my height of 5'2, my extra weight just hid my small frame. 

When I lost the extra weight I looked like a different person and I was very proud of myself, I loved my new body honestly. We live away from most of my family so they hadn't seen me lose the weight all they remembered was that I left being overweight and then came back for the holidays basically a new person. Most of my relatives were completely shocked and I thought they would be just as proud as I was but that didn't end up being the case. Everyone In my family is overweight so before I lost weight I seemed like one of them, fitting in completely but after I lost weight it's like they thought I was some kind of outsider or freak that didn't seem normal. 

 I started getting called Skinny Minny, Boney, Anorexic, and even ugly. Even some old friends would tell me I looked like a stick. I remember one time quite recently where my cousin and aunt actually told me that I had ruined my body, become horribly ugly, and that no guys would want me now. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. These people were my family and even they couldn't help but make hurtful body shaming comments. Why couldn't they just be as proud of myself as I was? I tried to just let them roll off my back but after awhile I started to wonder if maybe they were right, was I really "gross" looking? Had I ruined my body? Then I realized that listening to all this crap was just completely stupid. I hadn't ruined my body at all, I had just improved it.

 I became healthy because carrying all that extra weight on my little frame WAS not healthy. My family doctor had even told me that I was at a perfectly healthy weight so their comments about being sickly or having an eating disorder were definitely not true. I don't even think that people realize how hurtful their comments about being slim can be. They are just as hurtful as calling curvy girls fat. Body shaming of every body type, size, and shape needs to stop. 

EVERY girl is beautiful, it doesn't matter if you're a size 0 or 18, we are all gorgeous, wonderful, smart, funny women who are so much more than just what size jeans they fit into. Instead of tearing each other down with hurtful comments we should be lifting each other up in praise of how amazing we all are.