Take a deep breath and breathe, you are human and no one is perfect.

You never really understood your lowest point until you are in your bedroom with the door shut, hiding under blankets with your stomach intensely grumbling. Your mom calls for dinner, and you answer and say you are not hungry. You then proceed to get up and look in the mirror and see every imperfection that could ever be placed on your body. Right back into bed you go, your stomach aching so bad it makes you fall asleep, and at that moment you are wondering if you're hurting your body or going to wake up somewhat "perfect."

You go on with your days, each day feeling thinner but weaker. "Is it working?" "Are people noticing?" "No, no they are not I'm 'fat.'" You do not take a piece of bread at dinner. You notice your family gazing at your plate that you have hardly touched. You step on the scale after every meal and the numbers keep going down. "Wow, I am actually doing this." You look into the mirror, "Still " 'fat,'" "Need to keep going." You come downstairs and your mom offers you dessert, you turn it down, again.

People at school are noticing, but it is not a "Oh my, she looks so good," it is a "Is she sick?,""She is so fragile," "She must be going through a tough time." You are disappointed because you put in so much time and effort to lose weight, and people do not even think you look good. You go to a teacher's room for extra help, but you are also skipping your lunch period. Your friends come to your locker, "Did you eat lunch today?" You lie and respond "yes."

Weekly doctor appointments to make sure you are not losing any more weight. Tears after tears. Fights with your mom in the car after cheer-leading practice. Losing a lot of friends. Feeling hopeless. Wanting to be alone. Not wanting any help from anyone. Continuing to skip meals, and exercising secretly in your room. This is who you are now.

You have thought about giving up, throwing away everything, "If I am not skinny, no boy will ever love me" is what you told yourself for awhile. More tears, more weight lost. 5'7 with the scale reading 109 pounds, the doctor labeled you as severely underweight.

You blame society, and by all means, society should be blamed. There are unrealistic goals for women that place young girls into harming predicaments which make them hurt their body in a way that should never be done. Models are to the point of being strikingly skinny, and girls all around the world want to be them.

It takes you some time to realize you were tremendously hurting yourself, emotionally, physically and mentally. It took you about four years, (all throughout high school) to come to the conclusion that healthy was beautiful. Yes, you still think about that girl before and sometimes you kind of miss her, especially when she was told multiple times how thin she was.

But, this new girl, she is different, she has a spark that was never shown until now. She has a huge heart, she has dreams, and she has goals. Society is not getting in her way. She believes she can do anything and she will. She has come to realize that hurting herself is not an option anymore.

5'7 with the scale reading 130 pounds, and she is ecstatic, ready to take on the world, as the healthiest she has ever been.