Member-only story
From Loathing to Love
My Journey to Body Acceptance
Trigger warning: mentions of abuse and sexual assault.
Loving yourself — your mind, body, and soul — is a cornerstone of well-being. Yet, achieving this balance, especially when it comes to your body, can feel impossible amidst societal pressures, unattainable beauty standards, dysmorphia, gender dysphoria, or the weight of trauma.
Despite these challenges, it is possible to build a better relationship with your body and move closer to living your best life.
Today, I want to share my own journey — one marked by a complex and often painful relationship with my body — and how I ultimately found the path to self-acceptance and love after years of self-loathing and neglect.
The Long Road to Embracing Myself
My struggles with body image began with puberty. Growing up as a transgender girl — though I didn’t yet realize it at the time — I felt an increasing sense that my body was wrong. It wasn’t developing the way it should have. The changes I experienced were worlds apart from what I had subconsciously expected and what I saw happening with other girls.
By the time I reached young adulthood, this disconnect had festered into a deep hatred for everything about me, especially my body. It…
