My entire life I have been underweight. I was never really that worried about it, as I knew I was healthy and eating properly. However, other people thought otherwise. At the early age of 12 I was getting picked on by my own family, my friends at school, and even by strangers. The comments started off mild. Most of the time people would just make remarks like "You're so skinny" or "You're all skin and bone." Many people referred to me as "beanpole," and never really thought of it as something that was hurtful.
As time progressed, so did the comments. It didn't take long for people to start asking me if my parents were feeding me enough. Then they started to think I was choosing to not eat, and shamelessly asked me if I was anorexic or bulimic. This shortly spiraled into people no longer asking me, but rather people spreading rumors that I starved myself. People started to look at me like I was an alien, and whenever they saw me they would always point and whisper.
In 7th grade health, we had to create a presentation on some sort of health disorder. My health teacher decided that I wouldn't have a say in choosing, and told me I was going to present on anorexia and bulimia. She wanted me to do this to prove to people that they were wrong. I did as she asked, and let me just say it was not easy. Mid-presentation I broke out in tears. I had let people's comments get to me, and I didn't know what to do to make them stop.
After the presentation the comments died down, but they never officially ended. I'd hear a "I bet she starves herself and she lied like they all do" comment here and there, and my family still picked on me over my weight. I knew my family meant well, but their comments on top of everyone else's made me feel bad about my weight, even though it wasn't something I could control.
It disappoints me when people dismiss skinny shaming as something hurtful, because they don't think it's as bad as shaming someone because they're bigger than what's perceived as "normal". Both forms of weight shaming are unacceptable. Both hurt just as much. Both make someone insecure, and both damage someone's self-confidence.
To this day I still get a little hurt if someone tells me I need to eat more, even if it's intended to be caring and not hurtful. It's something that people need to be more aware of. What may seem like a harmless comment could be something that triggers a feeling of insecurity and shame, and nobody deserves to feel that way. Everyone deserves to love their body, no matter how it's built.
