The Untold Story: Anorexia

Anorexia.

It's something you don't talk about. It's something that happens to broken people, not you. Something that doesn't happen to smart people, just those who are desperate to fit in with society's standards of beauty.

No one wants to talk about it, no one wants to tell the story.

So I will.

It starts out innocent enough--you want to lose a few pounds, get healthy. You stop eating junk food, you start looking at labels and counting calories. But things get ugly fast.

Now, you can't eat anything if you don't know exactly how many calories in it. Maybe you dump half your food in the trashcan when your parents aren't looking because it's too many calories, too many carbs, too much fat...

You finally cave in, have a couple pieces of chocolate or a pint of ice cream. You don't understand how you could fail like this. You realize how fat and ugly you are, your weakness and weak will.

Perhaps this cycle only repeats itself once before you correct it, or maybe this is a pattern that makes up your months, you weeks, your days...

You are only proud of yourself when you are strong. And that is when you're hungry, your stomach so empty it could be mistaken for a black hole in space.

Eating is a sign of failure, of weakness. And weakness isn't beautiful.

Anorexia destroys the real lives of real people, some of which you come in contact with everyday. It doesn't just happen to broken people or desperate people or stupid people.

It happens to regular people, regular teens...who just want to be accepted and beautiful. People who see past society's "Love yourself the way you are" to the skinny models and stars promoted as beautiful.

Society is anorexic, it is empty and starving of true beauty, the beauty that runs deeper than face value. One that isn't created using makeup, lighting, starvation, and editing software.

You are beautiful when you are yourself.

Forget society's standards. Forget people's judgements. Just be, just do...you.