AFRAID TO TALK ABOUT WEIGHT

Dear Coleen

I’m scared to tell my mum about my weight issues, and I’m worried about confiding in my friends too, because they’re all really skinny.

I look at websites that say “embrace your body” and all that body positivity stuff, but I just can’t seem to accept my body and I don’t know why.

I used to be known as the skinny girl, but now I don’t feel like that. What should I do?

Coleen says

I’m a mum of a teenage girl and I would rather she confided in me about anything at all than struggle on her own. I’m certain your mum will feel the same way.

So you need to be brave and have a conversation with her. She was once a teenage girl herself and she’ll understand. At your age, your body is changing all the time – in fact, thanks to our hormones, women’s bodies change all through our lives.

It’s pointless to compare yourself to your friends because, in a year’s time, your bodies will have changed again.

The absolute best thing you can do for your body is to look after it well by eating healthy food and staying active, and by enjoying life and being confident about who you are. One thing I can promise you is, whatever size you are, the most attractive quality of all is confidence.

And please don’t fall into the trap of feeling pressured by the images of women’s bodies you see online – 99% of what you’re looking at has been filtered and altered to reach a level of perfection that not even supermodels can attain without a lot of airbrushing.