“Hey, Skinny Minnie.”

“Hey, Twiggy.”

“Why don’t you eat?”

“You know anorexia is bad for you, right?”

These a just a few of the things I heard growing up. The names were seen as terms of endearment by family members. I thought they were endearing as well at the time. Now I see them as a way to pick me out from the rest of the group. The small one. The thin one. The one who can be lifted up with one hand.

The latter two statements started to come around in middle school. I didn’t reach 100 pounds until I was around 14 or 15. The lack of “meat on my bones,” as people loved to point out, became an insecurity that other middle schoolers, particularly girls, fed on.

I distinctly remember the day that we learned about eating disorders in health class. A group of girls, who would continue to bully me regarding my weight all through high school, turned to me and laughed when the teacher was talking about anorexia.

Nationaleatingdisorders.org lists the following warning signs for anorexia nervosa:

1. Dramatic weight loss.
2. Preoccupation with weight, food, calories, fat grams, and dieting.
3. Refusal to eat certain foods, progressing to restrictions against whole categories of food (e.g. no carbohydrates, etc,).
4. Frequent comments about feeling “fat” or overweight despite weight loss.
5. Anxiety about gain weight or being “fat.”
6. Denial of hunger.
7. Development of food rituals (e.g. eating foods in certain orders, excessive chewing, rearranging food on a plate).
8. Consistent excuses to avoid mealtimes or situations involving food.
9. Excessive, rigid exercise regimen--despite weather, fatigue, illness, or injury, the need to “burn off” calories taken in.
10. Withdrawal from usual friends and activities.
11. In general, behaviors and attitudes indicating that weight loss, dieting, and control of food are becoming primary concerns.

Out of these 11 warning signs of anorexia nervosa, I didn’t display a single one. I may be tiny, but trust me, I can put food away like you can’t believe (I can eat seven rolls, an 8 ounce steak and two loaded sweet potatoes in one sitting at Texas Roadhouse).

Many other girls today, like me, are experiencing the same kind of issues. With the rise of the body positivity movement, the media is shifting its focus to larger women and saying that this is what people should aspire to. “Love your body no matter what.”

But how can you love your body if people are constantly telling you that you’re too thin, unhealthy and accuse you of having serious health issues such as eating disorders?

A lot of people in today’s society will focus on fat shaming, but skinny shaming is just as real. Even Kate Moss experienced this during her rise as a supermodel in the ‘90s: “I always used to get teased for being so thin... They pressurize girls so much into being something that they’re not, that society thinks or that the media thinks they should be. If they’re pretending to be somebody else, they’re not going to be their best,” she told author Maureen Callahan in "Champagne Supernovas."

The media is now supporting a healthier body type than what they focused on within a decade or so ago, but now that leaves skinny girls to be body shamed by the media and their peers. So here’s my thoughts for these body shamers:

People come in all shapes and sizes. Some may be more genetically inclined toward obesity. Others were born as a skeleton with skin. If we’re going to continue this “body positivity” trail that society is moving down, we need to learn to accept all bodies no matter what. I completely understand getting help for those with health issues such as eating disorders or obesity, but for those leading perfectly healthy lives, stop shaming them.

For so long, I felt ashamed of being thin. But the way my body is built has led me to amazing things such as being a collegiate athlete. I can’t be ashamed of what my skin and bones of a body can do because I know that I am healthy despite what others may say.