Focused

Okay, vulnerable moment. Body image is something I have struggled with since I was a teenager, as is the case for most women. However, my struggle was not something that came from within. It was pushed on me from without- from the very person that any fifteen-year-old girl looks to- from my mother. I remember the day we were shopping for clothes and my mother told me I was ugly and hard to shop for because "My butt was too big, and my breasts sagged like an old lady's." I am sorry for the graphic info, but it's hard to convey without it. As a teenager, I was told I was fat and ugly, and it made me feel worthless. I literally did not even hit 100 pounds until I was 16, but normal development felt traumatizing and every pound I gained (which was completely normal for a developing woman) was the end of the world. My father even called me a fatty at one point. I cannot count the number of nights I cried myself to sleep feeling ugly and worthless. Eventually the venom