I will be the first to admit that I regularly value my appearance over most other aspects of my personhood. As I’ve mentioned numerous times, and detailed in one of my first pieces on The Gloss, I struggled with an eating disorder for the better part of a decade and occasionally still have difficulties ignoring the little voice in my head that screams, “You are your thighs.”
However, after writing my article earlier on the obsession with thigh gap and reaching model standards via any means necessary, I thought it was important to elaborate on the most important message: you are not the sum of your measurements. I get that it sounds preachy and repetitive — believe me, I do. But when I was first trying to stop purging, partners and close friends would always say, “You’re so much more than your weight, you’re so much more than your body.” I would ask them what else was important and oftentimes, the answer was simply, “Who you are.” This never felt adequate, though, as I had defined who I was through my appearance for so long, I didn’t think there was much else to Samantha Escobar besides what she looked like.
Building self esteem is hard when your only source of confidence is how your mirror has rated you each morning. As National Eating Disorder Awareness Week comes to a close, I felt it appropriate to go into just a few of the many aspects of each of you that are infinitely more important than your weight, figure and appearance overall. I promise, there are many.
Photo: Rules of Attraction
