Those of us who have been skinny shamed DO get how hurtful it must be to have gone through what you have gone through. Because we’ve been hurt, too. And it hurts, as well, when our psychological pain is dismissed as invalid.

I am deeply sorry for the things that have been said to you. There is no excuse for it and I would never tell you it’s not hurtful or invalid.

When I was in my 20s, people poked me in public, pinched my belly, literally forced me to eat (would not accept that I was full), accused me of eating disorders, told people I had eating disorders, called me crazy, called me “skinny bitch”. One woman actually tried to start a bar fight with me because she hated me for the mere fact that I was skinny.

And, imagine what it may have been like after having a kid and hiting my 40s and suddenly I’m not the skinny chick anymore? You know what happens? We’ll do anything to stay skinny. Anything. Because 10 pounds warrants comments. You know what happens as a result of that? Eating disorders.

Please, do not dismiss the pain that anyone who is different from you has felt.