{"id":134963,"date":"2026-02-16T10:15:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T10:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/134963\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T10:15:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T10:15:11","slug":"opinion-confessions-of-a-former-body-positivity-influencer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/134963\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion | Confessions of a Former Body Positivity Influencer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-8hvvyd\">I used to be a body positivity influencer, preaching a simple message: Love yourself at any size. Then, I risked it all. \u201cI don\u2019t care how trendy or cute or fun it seems to be fat. You got to really think about your health. Love yourself at any size, but don\u2019t forget that your heart has to beat, babes.\u201d I\u2019m going to tell you how I got here, from championing body positivity to renouncing it. My story starts like this. Since I was a little girl, I always knew I was bigger. But I\u2019m from the Bronx, where having a curvy body and a fat ass is what you want. When you\u2019re Latina, you get called gordita, and it\u2019s a term of endearment. \u201cFluffy,\u201d like Gabriel Iglesias used to say. \u201cI called myself fat around my mom, and she was like, \u2018Mijo, you\u2019re not fat, you\u2019re fluffy.\u2019\u201d It wasn\u2019t until college that I learned in the rest of the country, thinness is the beauty standard. Even worse, fat people are seen as lazy and dumb. \u201cI\u2019m doing horizontal running.\u201d It wasn\u2019t just a fun thing to be fluffy. It was actually something people found disgusting. \u201cRun for the hills. It\u2019s Fatzilla!\u201d Studies show fat people are often treated worse in health care. And for women, the heavier we are, the less we\u2019re paid. I eventually learned that this discrimination has a name: Fatphobia. I never planned on being a body positivity influencer. I wanted to be an actress. I wanted to be a star. \u201cCause I love Beyonc\u00e9.\u201d But being plus-size, I never felt like it was possible. And so I started my YouTube channel in 2010. \u201cMake like a semicircle-type of effect.\u201d \u201cThis is a simple tank top and it only costs, like, 13 bucks.\u201d That\u2019s when I started to get more attention from other plus-size women about how empowered they felt watching my content, and that just made me feel like I had a bigger purpose in what I was creating. I started posting more intentionally. \u201cYou woke up for a reason. You didn\u2019t wake up to feel bad about yourself.\u201d Sometimes about plus-size fashion. \u201cThey actually look like a legit 3X. They look big.\u201d Or travel. \u201cI deserve to be on this flight just as anyone else.\u201d Brands started sending me clothes to model. \u201cI have a collaboration with Boohoo.\u201d \u201cSo I partnered with GS Love Me.\u201d \u201cThank you to Forever 21 for sponsoring this video.\u201d I was on magazine covers and making headlines. It was the late 2010s and body positivity exploded. \u201cVersace brand featured three plus-size models.\u201d \u201cFull-figured, plus-size ladies.\u201d \u201cAmerican Vogue.\u201d \u201cSports Illustrated.\u201d \u201cA huge step forward for body positivity.\u201d \u266b \u201cI ain\u2019t no size 2, but I can shake it, shake it.\u201d \u266b Seeing a community that welcomes you with open arms and tells you there\u2019s no pressure to look this way, to be this certain weight, I mean, does that not sound like paradise? Then, over time, I got heavier and heavier. I\u2019ve always been an adventurous person, but there was a lot I couldn\u2019t do anymore. Fitting into the seats on roller coasters, planes. I couldn\u2019t wear heels. My dresses wouldn\u2019t zip up. And that wasn\u2019t all. \u201cWhen you\u2019re bigger, you might not be able to wipe as well as a thinner person. You can\u2019t reach because there\u2019s no space.\u201d Some days, I would look at photos and not even recognize myself. I\u2019m only five feet tall and at my heaviest, I was close to 400 pounds. I started to wonder if loving myself at any size had become an excuse to ignore how big I was getting. I felt like I saw myself being brainwashed, essentially. Meanwhile, the language around body positivity began sounding more extreme online. \u201cThere are a few words that I don\u2019t allow. \u2018Healthy\u2019 is one of them.\u201d \u201cThis comes up a lot when I talk about how the word \u2018obese\u2019 is a slur.\u201d \u201cIf I don\u2019t want to step on the scale at the doctor\u2018s. I say, \u2018Oh, I don\u2019t want to be weighed today.\u2019\u201d \u201cIntentional weight loss is fatphobic.\u201d \u201cThis is what makes exercise fatphobic.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s rooted in fatphobia. It\u2019s not rooted in science. It doesn\u2019t work.\u201d I\u2019ve even seen celebrities being attacked for losing weight. \u201cThis morning Kelly Clarkson facing criticism after revealing she\u2019s taking a prescription medication for weight loss.\u201d \u201cThe slimmed-down star is facing criticism after her noticeable weight loss.\u201d It wasn\u2019t always like this. Years before, I had often talked about weight loss without getting hate. \u201cThe last couple days, I was feeling really, really, like, depressed, and I was like, I need to get my ass out there and work out.\u201d \u201cToday\u2019s video is going to be a \u2018What I Eat in a Day\u2019 video to lose weight.\u201d But as the body positivity community became more radical, I was scared to say the wrong thing, so I stayed silent. Then, my friend died. She was a body positivity influencer, who founded the world\u2019s first plus-size salon. \u201cAll bodies, all sizes, and has custom chairs that hold up to 800 pounds.\u201d She was just someone I considered a big sister. Taught me about business and taught me about the movement. I worried about her a lot. After she was bedridden because of heart failure, Jamie expressed her desire to lose weight. \u201cI haven\u2019t left the house in two years, and I just learned to walk again.\u201d I really believed that she was going to make it out of it. But in late 2022, she died, at 37, reportedly from heart complications. I didn\u2019t want her to feel like I was trying to tell her what to do, and I kind of wish I would have spoke up maybe more, and just let her know that I cared. And she wasn\u2019t the only one. A week later, another body positivity influencer posted this video. \u201cI ruined my life with food, binge eating and lack of self-care. I\u2019m hoping that it\u2019s not too late for me this time.\u201d Just months before, Brittany said she developed Type 2 diabetes and serious weight-related skin infections. \u201cMy pelvic region is literally the size of like a large purse. It\u2019s extremely swollen and hard.\u201d One week after posting that video begging the universe for another chance at life \u2014 \u201cIt\u2019s really scary how bad things can get.\u201d \u2014 she died. She was 28. I don\u2019t know for sure if Jamie and Brittany died because of their size, but hearing their own regrets, I couldn\u2019t help but think of myself. It was one thing to sacrifice my adventurous lifestyle. It was another to put my life at risk. And so I just pressed record and everything I said just came out. \u201cI\u2019m going to say something controversial, and I don\u2019t care. I actually feel kind of guilty for being a part of this movement. Health is real. Organs failing is real. Diabetes, heart disease, all that [expletive] is real. OK? It\u2019s not fatphobic to care about your health. And this is coming from someone who\u2019s learning those [expletive] lessons now, myself.\u201d And the backlash was massive. \u201cI\u2019ve literally been seething with anger.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s blowing my mind how fatphobic you\u2019ve become.\u201d \u201cYou should know better and do better.\u201d The body positivity community branded me a pariah, and so I left. I want to lose more weight, but I still feel a lot better than I did before. I feel a lot more like myself. Let me be clear. Not every fat person is unhealthy. Not every skinny person is healthy. \u201cA viral rise in SkinnyTok.\u201d \u201cSkinnyTok.\u201d \u201cDark side of social media.\u201d \u201cEncourages disordered eating.\u201d \u201cIf you want to get skinny, you need to gaslight yourself to skinny.\u201d \u201cView food as something that is optional always.\u201d Not everyone can control their weight, and no one should be mistreated for it. But what\u2019s not fatphobic is this: Being fat does increase your risk of health problems. Studies show obese people are about six times more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes. We have a 28 percent greater risk of heart disease. We have higher risk for 13 types of cancer. Up to seven times the risk for endometrial cancer, up to five times the risk for esophageal cancer. Colon, rectal, pancreatic, kidney. Higher risk of strokes. We can still be body positive, while acknowledging these risks. We can still love ourselves even if we want to lose weight. That\u2019s what real body positivity should stand for. Loving yourself at any size and having the freedom to change it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I used to be a body positivity influencer, preaching a simple message: Love yourself at any size. Then,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[57362,2051,57359,9058,57361,9,11,10,9708,57360,56160,29763,4015,57310,9057,25221,46778],"class_list":{"0":"post-134963","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-advertisingmarketing","9":"tag-computers-and-the-internet","10":"tag-disesaseshealthillnessmedicine","11":"tag-downloads-and-streaming","12":"tag-glp1sglucagon-like-peptide-1-glp-1-receptor-agonistsozempicwegovy","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-headlines","15":"tag-new-york-news","16":"tag-nutrition","17":"tag-obesity","18":"tag-online-advertising","19":"tag-ozempic","20":"tag-social-media","21":"tag-tech-industry","22":"tag-video-recordings","23":"tag-weight","24":"tag-your-feed-opinionvideo"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}