Sleep is disrupted. Energy fades. Emotions feel like a complete disaster—the rage is real. Brain fog rolls in. Words disappear mid-sentence (that one's fun). You walk into a room and forget why you're there. Your body begins responding in ways you don’t recognize, and suddenly it feels unfamiliar. It’s confusing. And it’s fucking hard. And if you’re anything like me, you head straight to trying to figure out how to get back to where you were. You ask yourself: What am I doing

A personal reflection on stepping off the perfection treadmill and releasing the pressure to keep up. This piece explores the body grief and unexpected relief that come with no longer performing for wellness, beauty, or success: and choosing alignment over appearance. Long before I had language for it, my body knew when something was a yes… and when it wasn’t. Even as a kid, I had a hard time ignoring that feeling. My dad used to call me a little pitbull, half-joking, half-pr

America’s Next Top Model and the Cost of Turning Abuse Into Entertainment ANTM turned young women’s suffering into entertainment, and the recent documentary revisits that harm without truly taking responsibility for it. I didn’t watch America’s Next Top Model when it first aired. I actually don’t think I have ever watched an entire episode from start to finish. People asked me all the time if I did — “HELL NO,” I would respond, annoyed. I loathed the show from the few minutes

Written by Bridgett Burrick Brown As parents, we often approach conversations about body image with the best intentions, hoping to protect our children from a world filled with unrealistic beauty and body image standards. While these efforts often always come from a place of love, they can sometimes cause unintended harm, introducing ideas our children are too young to process or projecting our own insecurities onto them. Body image issues are not innate—they’re learned. Non

Written by Stephanie Voytek Hip bones that stick out of low-rise jeans. Rib lines that run parallel to hollowed cheekbones. Legs that resemble arms. Thong straps that search for fat to grip onto. So many of us Millennial women don’t need to be reminded of the images of heroin chic that informed our body image. In the early 00’s, “heroin chic” became a “thing of the past”, as evidenced by a newer wave of models who carried a whole pound more of fat than their predecessors. Our

Written by Stephanie Voytek Everyone says that I should love my body, but how can I when it feels like it’s changing everyday? Throughout my years as an eating disorder dietitian, so many of my clients have repeated this exact line. Sometimes spoken loudly, sometimes with tears, and sometimes apprehensively waiting for me to tell them that they’re wrong. That loving your body is easy if you just will yourself. Love your body. Love your fat. Fat is normal. Embrace your rolls.