“Hi, you! Yes, you, scrolling on your electronic device! Do you hate your body? I bet you do, and if you don’t, you should! Try this supplement for hair growth, weight loss, de-bloating, and fewer wrinkles. Try these wall pilates exercises to burn those extra stubborn 20 pounds of fat! I promise, if you simply buy the latest tummy-sucking, hair-oiling, pore-pulling, teeth-whitening, lash-growing product, you, too, can look like you’ve had thousands of dollars of plastic surgery like me!” 

This is the messaging that I, and many others, have once again been inundated with across social media platforms. I picked up on the trend relatively slowly. In the summer of 2025, body-positivity influencers began to post about their weight-loss journeys and started to peddle their GLP-1 miracle cures. XL and L sizes started disappearing from shelves, and brands stopped hiring models with diverse body types. Websites and packaging have been rebranded with messaging about guilt-free foods and shapewear to suck in all those nasty, flabby bits you should hate. Men with beards eat steak and eggs and raw milk off of wooden cutting boards while telling you why you’re a fat piece of sh*t for not working out for three hours every day.

The algorithm is clear: We want you to hate your body again. 

My pitch? Don’t listen. 

Trust me, I know the overwhelming “hate yourself” messaging all too well; it’s the only thing I was told as a girl who grew up morbidly obese, broad-shouldered, and taller-than-average in Los Angeles. I was constantly being subliminally — and not so subliminally — told that my body was not only wrong, but hideous. All of the movies, shows, and advertisements that I watched ridiculed women who were half my size for being “too fat” for love. It led me to desperately search for ways to shrink myself into conformity. For three years, I not only struggled, but was applauded for slowly destroying my body. After all, as legendary supermodel Kate Moss put it, “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.” 

Now, as I sit and watch the hideous beast that is Hollywood eating disorders and body trends rear its head during a cultural return to conservative values, I am reminded of the mindset I have fought so hard to recover from, and it frightens me. Because once you emerge from the smoke and mirrors that are GLP-1 advertisements, lack of brand inclusivity, and influencers showing you how you can pay to look, “feel,” and conform better, you begin to see this industry for what it is: a means of control. 

To be clear, I take absolutely no issue with the idea of cosmetically altering your appearance to feel more comfortable in your body. If that is what it takes for you to feel like the best version of yourself and you have the extra cash on hand, I say go for it. My issue lies within the idea that there is no way you cannot be beautiful without medical intervention, that you are worth less if you do not stretch or starve yourself to fit a norm. I promise that even with the latest trending cosmetic procedure or weight-loss fad, you will not feel good within your own skin until you learn to love yourself just as you are — no scalpels necessary. 

Let me tell you a secret: Perfection is fleeting. If you fit into the beauty standard today, I guarantee that you will not in another year, six months, two weeks, tomorrow. Because that is how this industry makes its money, by preying on your insecurities that they have created. The only thing you can do to cheat the system? Learn how to be unapologetically, emphatically, unabashedly you. 

So, how can you get there? For me, the most successful strategy has been the integration of radical kindness into my everyday life. Having a bad day? Look in the mirror and say one thing you love about yourself. Feeling hopeless and angry at the world? Give someone a compliment and take comfort in the small joy it brings them. To the extent you can control, replace the energy it takes to hate yourself with the much more cost-productive time it takes to bring simple light to someone’s world. 

This moment is an impossible-to-navigate challenge, a rapidly flowing river of uncertainty and fear. Truly, the last thing you should be worrying about is what falsely-made manicured box others can shove you into. What matters is that you have the strength to fight for the things that matter most to you. 

Manufactured self-hatred by companies that stand to profit off of your misery is a scam. Chasing the ever-moving target of perfection is exhausting. Becoming “the standard” of looks is a farce. And anything that tells you to be anything other than yourself is selling you a nightmare wrapped in a papery-thin dream. 

When the world wants you to hate your body again, I beg of you: Don’t listen.