What is this world coming to when a successful lean influencer gripes that seeing other influencers shrinking in size is unbearable?
How about don’t visit their accounts?
Facts of life need to be dealt with in a mature, practical manner.
One of the big facts of life is that celebrities, over time, may appear to be losing some weight – celebs who were never plus-size to begin with.
There’s at least a few influencers out there who are struggling with this big fact (as though it’s any of their business that their favorite celebrity or fellow influencer is losing weight).
They get triggered. They confess that seeing other influencers suddenly getting smaller is grating on their minds, making them begin to question if they themselves should go on a weight loss diet.
I’ve been an adult for much longer than these influencers have been alive.
And all my life, alongside noticing that every so often, a celebrity starts getting thinner, there’s many more who just get bigger as the years go by.
Some classic cases of that latter scenario include movie stars Elizabeth Taylor, Shelley Winters and TV sitcom veteran Sally Struthers.
Pop star Linda Ronstadt has put on more than a few, along with TV star Kirsty Alley. The list is endless.
Likewise, many influencers have gained weight into the plus-size range.
So why, then, is the influencer with the conventionally attractive body getting triggered when she notices other such influencers or pop divas getting trimmer and trimmer?
Get Out of That Hot Kitchen Already
Why are you looking at influencers who are getting smaller?
What about the ones getting bigger? There’s plenty getting bigger. Why not look at THOSE?
And besides, you don’t know why the others are getting smaller. You have no idea what their medical history is.
Maybe they have a condition that leads to weight loss or appetite suppression.
Maybe it’s the side effect of a prescription drug. Do you want a sickness that causes weight loss?
Why do you envy them? Even if their weight loss is intentional, why is it so much your business?
Women lose weight. It’s a fact of life. Deal.
Women lose weight. It’s a fact of life. Deal.
Maybe they’re jogging an extra two miles a day. Maybe they’ve taken up karate and that’s how they’ve lost some weight.
Get over it. What this young adult generation needs is some toughening up. I’m old school.
I don’t believe in giving trophies just for showing up.
This is the Charmin generation: Today’s young adults are SO SOFT. The coddling needs to end.
How do you know those celebs and influencers haven’t figured out a way to stick to 1200 calories a day and that’s why they’re getting slimmer?
Why would you envy someone who’s eating only 1200 calories a day?
If they have two Crumbl cookies and a glass of water, their food intake is over for the day. And you envy them?
Why are you comparing yourself to same-height influencers who weigh 20 lbs. less?
Do you really want to be 20 lbs. less and have pipe cleaner arms?
If you’re not overweight, if nobody could look at you and say, she’s pudgy or she needs to lose some fat in her legs, what’s the problem?
If you want pipe cleaner arms and stick thighs, you have to ask yourself why you want the body of a hyperactive adolescent boy.
To get as thin as you’d like to be, you’d have to sacrifice function.
Pipe cleaner arms and stick legs will hold you back in life.
Do you not realize how easily such a body can be physically broken by a simple tumble down a few steps or a fender bender?
Do you really want to be frail and struggle to lift up your future children, struggle to put a toddler in and out of a playpen, struggle to carry things around, legs giving out on you when on a group hike?
Retrain Your Brain
Freepik
If there’s features about your body you don’t like, such as the shape of your arms, then alter your strength training regimen to sculpt your arms.
Are you not aware that in women, slightly muscled arms are all the rage? Not pipe cleaner arms, but strong looking arms. And legs.
But rage aside, are you not aware that a strong body will get you through life much more efficiently than will a reed-thin body?
It’s your choice to stay down in that rabbit hole, or, to climb the hell out and empower yourself with strength training and more logical thinking and staying off the Instagram and TikTok accounts of influencers who are getting smaller.
Maybe you’re in the wrong profession. Ask yourself if your career as an influencer has caused you to cease checking your privilege.
“You Don’t Understand”
Anyone who’s triggered by my commentary might fire back with, “You just don’t understand what today’s generation gets put through, what with GLP-1 ads being shoved down our throats, a new weight loss book out every week, scary skinny celebrities flaunting their protruding bones!”
Every generation is witness to weight loss ads and is well aware of popular weight loss books on the New York Times Bestseller List.
For example, years ago SlimFast shake commercials were all over TV. Previous generations know the slogan all too well: “A shake for breakfast, another for lunch and then a sensible dinner.”
Hungrex pills was another one: TV commercials all the time.
Let’s not forget Jenny Craig and Nutrisystem.
As for thin celebs with tiny waists, every single generation has had these. I thought nothing of it.
And there’d been times when I was a little overweight, too. I was never triggered by seeing a woman on TV with a twiggy body.
I’ve always wanted to be six feet tall. Likewise, I’ve never been triggered by seeing six foot tall women.
What I’d like to know is where this “pressure” to be thinner comes from that these Charmin-minded influencers blame their problems on.
Nobody shoves anything down your throat. That’s your perception. You can reframe your brain to function more tactically and logically.
One might argue that many of these influencers were harangued by their parents about their bodies when growing up, and that it’s difficult to rewire a broken mind.
However, not all of these influencers were emotionally abused by a parent. That’s the thing that really gets me.
What next?
In the end, the world doesn’t need more fragile reactions to ordinary realities.
Celebrities and influencers gaining or losing weight is nothing new — it’s part of life.
What matters is how one responds to it. Rather than envying or resenting others’ bodies, focus on your own health, resilience and mindset.
If you’re still struggling after years of being in therapy, then find a therapist who’ll dig deeper to get to the root of your problem.
The root has nothing to do with GLP-1 ads all over the place, famous glam women getting thinner and thinner, or a snide remark perhaps by your older brother about the puckering in your thighs when you sit a certain way.
Strength, both physical and mental, will take you much further than will obsession with a thin look ever will.
The mature response isn’t to complain about who’s shrinking, but to redirect that energy toward self-improvement and perspective.
The real power lies in self-discipline, self-respect and refusing to be emotionally swayed by appearances.
