I can’t say I equate my situation to those that REALLY are fucked over by thin privilege, but here are just my two cents.

Me and my mother have always been the same height and build since I was 10. 4'11", with wide shoulders and almost no curves. I spent a lot of time as a teenager lazy and lethargic, playing video games all day, but I was relatively thin. My mom was overweight, but she was healthy, in shape, and I never saw anything wrong with it, but she often mentioned she wished she had my body, like she used to. I mean, she’s older and has had two kids, no one’s blaming her.

However, this year, my last year of high school, I decided to join track and field. I participate in the sprint, jump, pole vault, and shot put events. Since joining, I have gained a total of 30lbs. Part of it is muscle, but part of it is also straight up fat. I’m exercising, I’m working out regularly, so I’m eating more than the couple of meals I used to, that sustained my video game lifestyle. I look a lot different than I used to, but I feel great. I’m stronger, have a higher endurance, and I just feel good and happy about myself. Well, I was.

Around this same time, my mother also began a very low calorie diet where she would consume drinks from those smoothie machines all day, and nothing else. Since then, she’s lost about 20 lbs. I’m very happy for her, because that’s what she’s wanted, and if she’s happy with her body, then so am I. Yet, now she’s judging me for “packing on pounds” and “letting myself go” when I’m in the fittest shape of my life. She tries to take food away from me, or force me to skip meals, even before meets, and it really impacts me both physically and emotionally. I’m healthy, I’m feeling good, and I’m more confident in my body than I ever was. But yet to her, she just sees it as thin = good and fat = bad, and it really hurts.