SKORCH Feb | Mar 2017 - Body Love Issue | Page 60

Skorch

INTERVIEW
Vol . 13 Issue 12 fev 2017 | SKORCHMAG . COM | 60

I want to make sure that the pain and struggle that I and so many others have gone through , no one else has to .

That is very simply not true . Humans are beautiful beings . No two are the same . We are each unique , made up of countless magnificently differing characteristics . Our bodies are not something to be ashamed of , and that ’ s something that took me a while to learn . It was a hard journey to get as far as I have with becoming body positive . Again , for something that has the word positive it in , why was it so painful ? I want to make sure that the pain and struggle that I and so many others have gone through , no one else has to .
For me , growing up with a constantly changing and fluctuating body , it was difficult to see the reality of things . During my teen years , blossoming alongside the fast evolution and production of technology and social media , it became even more difficult . Cyber bullying was more than relevant and with it I received destructive body shaming , among other abuses . What most people didn ’ t know , was that I am a person who lives with mental illness .
Approximately twenty percent of teens experience depression before they reach adulthood . Depression affects more that 15 million American Adults , about 6.7 percent of the US population age 18 and older in a given year . All the while , 42.5 million American adults , which is 18.2 percent of the total adult population in the United States , suffer from some kind of mental illnesses . Imagine now , the extra pressures and pain that could be taken away if we all had a little body love . Living