Skorch
INTERVIEW
Vol. 13 Issue 12 fev 2017 | SKORCHMAG. COM | 60
I want to make sure that the pain and struggle that I and so many others have gone through, no one else has to.
That is very simply not true. Humans are beautiful beings. No two are the same. We are each unique, made up of countless magnificently differing characteristics. Our bodies are not something to be ashamed of, and that’ s something that took me a while to learn. It was a hard journey to get as far as I have with becoming body positive. Again, for something that has the word positive it in, why was it so painful? I want to make sure that the pain and struggle that I and so many others have gone through, no one else has to.
For me, growing up with a constantly changing and fluctuating body, it was difficult to see the reality of things. During my teen years, blossoming alongside the fast evolution and production of technology and social media, it became even more difficult. Cyber bullying was more than relevant and with it I received destructive body shaming, among other abuses. What most people didn’ t know, was that I am a person who lives with mental illness.
Approximately twenty percent of teens experience depression before they reach adulthood. Depression affects more that 15 million American Adults, about 6.7 percent of the US population age 18 and older in a given year. All the while, 42.5 million American adults, which is 18.2 percent of the total adult population in the United States, suffer from some kind of mental illnesses. Imagine now, the extra pressures and pain that could be taken away if we all had a little body love. Living