Tess Holliday

Tess Holliday, a famous US plus-size model, has revealed that she is battling anorexia and is in recovery. The model and activist took to social media to share her health condition as a response to comments about her recent weight loss. She said that negative comments can be “extremely triggering” for people recovering from an eating disorder.

“I’m anorexic and in recovery. I’m not ashamed to say it out loud anymore. I’m the result of a culture that celebrates thinness and equates that to worth, but I get to write my own narrative now. I’m finally able to care for a body that I’ve punished my entire life and I am finally free,” she said in a tweet.

Later on Instagram, she posted a message telling people to stop commenting on her appearance. “To everyone that keeps saying ‘you’re looking healthy lately’ or ‘you are losing weight, keep it up!’— Stop,” she said in the message. Holliday lost weight while practicing regular eating patterns to help her body recover from anorexia. “Yes, I’ve lost weight —

I’m healing from an eating disorder and feeding my body regularly for the first time in my entire life,” she added.

For years, Holliday has campaigned against weight discrimination and negative comments about her health. She said in the message that conflating weight and health is harmful, as it promotes the “thin ideal, fatphobia and diet culture.”

She added: “When you equate weight loss with health, and place value and worth on someone’s size, you are basically saying that we are more valuable now because we are smaller, and are perpetuating diet culture.” Holliday also discussed how focusing on appearance and leaving comments or compliments on weight loss photos is harmful for people who suffer from eating disorders.

“For folks like me that are trying to reframe our relationships with our bodies and heal, hearing comments about weight is triggering as hell. It sets us back in our progress,” she said.

“If you can’t tell someone they look nice without making it about their size, then please don’t say anything at all,” she added.