Experts say one way to help foster a healthier body image is to drown out the toxic messages about body shape and size you might see on TV or social media — and tune into the ones that promote the attitude you want to have.
Seeing images of a very specific type and shape of body on social media being applauded and glorified over and over again can start to affect what we see as healthy, normal, and beautiful when it comes to body image, explains Charlotte Markey, PhD, a professor of psychology and director of the Health Sciences Center at Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey.
“If we looked on social media, saw other people, and our response was, ‘Wow, they look great! I’m so glad they’re so happy’ — and we didn’t compare ourselves — then we wouldn’t really have a problem,” Dr. Markey says. “But that's not what we do, unfortunately. We see how people are and we question why we aren’t those things and then we feel bad.”
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This is especially true for certain people who have a personal history of struggling with body image issues, says Markey, who is also author of The Body Image Book for Girls and The Body Image Book for Boys. “If you’re recovering from an eating disorder or have some type of childhood trauma that hasn’t been addressed, anything that is triggering on social media can have a negative effect,” says Markey.
Limiting the amount of time you spend scrolling can help. (Try turning off your notifications, so you don’t feel compelled to check the app every time you get an alert.)
But if you do spend any amount of time on social media, altering the content you’re seeing can make a difference, too, in terms of reinforcing positive (not negative) messages about body image and body acceptance.
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“If we connect with people who offer us something other than an opportunity to feel badly about ourselves, then it can be a much more positive space,” Markey says.
Get started by checking out these five accounts who are challenging diet culture, anti-fatness rhetoric, ableism, and gender norms.
1. @guyoverboard
Riccardo Onorato is a Rome-based advocate for plus-size male beauty and a self-proclaimed “Fat-shionista.” On his Instagram feed, he writes openly about his raw experience with internalized fatphobia and systemic discrimination against fat bodies. “Our bodies shouldn’t be evaluated or try to overcome a test. What should overcome is the harmful tendency to perpetuate the idea that our bodies are constantly under judgments [sic].” he said in a post.
Onorato also shares insights about how he’s learned to navigate male societal norms, as someone who doesn’t fit the mold. Keep an eye out for his summertime swimwear posts, including his commentary on what it means to have a “bikini body.” In another post, he shares: “There isn’t a single physical prerequisite for finding love, wearing a bikini, taking a vacation, or appreciating our body in a fabulous outfit. And this is the respect we deserve from ourselves and from people around us.”
Follow @guyoverboard
2. @emeraldxbeauty
When it comes to loving the skin you’re in, Kadeeja Sel Khan is as real as they come. She’s a model with acne-prone skin, who has openly shared edited versus unedited images of her skin. “Having Acne for 10 years + has gotten me use to the up & down rollercoaster,” she wrote in the caption of such a post. “However I always remind myself that my skins beautiful no matter what & that it’s just SKIN! [sic]”
Kadeeja also posts about her experience living with PCOS, and the hormonal acne, hair loss, and weight fluctuation the condition brings on. “Sometimes it’s not about ‘weight loss’ but rather about feeling good in your skin,” she wrote in another post.
Follow @emeraldxbeauty
3. @SeeMiaRoll
Mia Ives-Rublee is a civil rights activist who’s committed to highlighting diversity within the disability community. As the director for the Disability Justice Initiative at American Progress, a nonpartisan policy institute, she’s made her way around Washington, DC, including testifying in front of Congress about her life experiences, which she wrote about in a post.
Other posts cover everything from photos of her service dog Zini, her car camping adventures, and how she gets creative about making accommodations for herself, like this post.
Follow @SeeMiaRoll
4. @rvbyallegra
Australia-based artist Ruby Allegra is the self-described “autistic trans queercripple of ur dreams.”
Through their art and their photographs, they address the intersectionality of being transgender, autistic, and a wheelchair user. They have shared their thoughts on grief and loneliness as a person managing a disability, experiencing gender euphoria, and photos where they feel at their most confident.
Follow @rvbyallegra
5. @meganjaynecrabbe
U.K.-based activist and author Megan Jayne Crabbe is open about her past experience with an eating disorder and the fact that she now celebrates her body exactly as it is.
On recovering from an eating disorder, she wrote in the caption of a post: “Trying to recover within a culture that still normalises disordered eating, unrealistic body ideals & obsessive dieting is an absolute mindf***.”
In another post, she shared: “People deserve to feel ok about: Their cellulite. Their belly rolls. Their hair marks and body hair and loose skin and every other completely natural bodily feature we’ve been wrongly taught to see as ‘flaws’ for our entire lives.”
Follow @meganjaynecrabbe
