ONLINE bodyshamers be warned: The Veronicas are on troll patrol.

The chart-topping Brisbane pop stars, who monitor their own social media, were furious when comments on a new photo they posted claimed they were promoting eating disorders to teenagers.

One female follower said, “I don’t think you need to be a qualified doctor to realise that a cheeseburger would do them good”. This infuriated the twins, who do not eat meat but are incredibly conscious of health and nutrition.

Other comments included “Jesus, they’re too thin”, “holy crap what happened to them” and “they look anorexic, not healthy”.

Jess Origliasso instantly responded online with the following reply:

Today, Jess Origliasso told News Corp Australia in her own words why The Veronicas are not taking the trolling lying down.

Jess: “It’s become challenging because it’s constant. It’s usually people who aren’t invested in us as artists, they don’t know what’s going on in any capacity. They have these big opinions and it’s very frustrating. None of it makes sense. It’s like, people who want to make noise to make noise. Usually it’s unintelligent assumptions. I can’t stand the comment ‘Eat something’ — assuming we don’t eat. It’s society standards that people buy into that have been set by schools, government, media ... health in general in a mainstream sense is not talked about in the way it should be talked about. Therefore people come to these completely inaccurate assumptions.

“Telling us, ‘You don’t need to be a qualified doctor to realise a cheeseburger would do them good’ — the ignorance in that one comment alone. I facepalmed my forehead maybe four times before answering. It infuriates me, health is something that I’m really passionate about, probably because we’ve been given such a hard time about it for a long time — for our entire career. Having that discussion might make a difference rather than body shaming every woman who looks too skinny or too fat by society’s standards. We have a tiny mother, we have tiny frames. We are very vocal about health and diet. Our food pyramid isn’t necessarily the food pyramid we’re taught about in school; the food pyramid we adhere to has a lot of good fats, we eat a lot of olive oil, avocado, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, really good oil, massive amounts of healthy carbs — potato and sweet potatoes. I can’t imagine people who have a healthier, more sustainable diet than us. To have a career for this long in this industry for as long as we have, you have to. So to be told by some troll on Facebook that eating a cheeseburger would help our situation because in their mind that makes them feel better ... No, stop, you’re making noise in the wrong direction.

“They’re buying into society’s idea that skinny people equals certain jobs — pop stars are skinny, models are skinny, people have to starve themselves to be successful. They’re buying into this rhetoric that isn’t a part of us or anything we stand for or anything that’s a part of our lifestyle.”

“This is a conversation that needs to happen for young women. Obviously we are of a minority, with our body frames — we understand that, it’s not worth defending that. But we are passionate about health. We will have the conversation about health. Trying to degrade the conversation to an ignorant statement is not a part of our understanding. I will happily sit down and debate that in an intelligent conversation, but usually these people aren’t interested in intelligent conversations, they’re interested in making themselves feel better momentarily by trying to tell us we’re promoting anorexia or whatever else they’re trying to hang on us. That is honestly so hurtful.”

To get an idea of the Origliassos’ frames — they measure in at less than 150cms tall (under 5ft).

Jess: “It’s about the stigma attached to being females in pop music in a society that judges women the way it judges women, how they body shame you if you are not within this tiny percentile of weight. If you’re past it you’re too fat; if you’re below it you’re too skinny; if you don’t fit into these peoples’ idealistic visions you’re body shamed. That is wrong. That’s the conversation I’d like to change. That’s going to take society as a whole changing the way beauty is perceived and how health specifically is perceived.”

The sisters both follow meat-free diets and posted (above) one day’s shopping in response to one troll who said “EAT SOMETHING FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! I’ll pay for the food”. He has yet to make good on the offer. While Jess says she’s a vegan, Lisa prefers not to “label” herself.



Jess: “I did an article on our Facebook page a year ago where I addressed the constant comments we were getting. It’s not so much defending us, but for young women and men I hope this conversation changes and people are willing to become educated in an intelligent way to understand health and the impact it has on the human body. I can ignore it, but as soon as people try to use us as a billboard for something unhealthy — when we stand for so much more that — really upsets me. There’s bigger issues in the world. I’m happy to continue to talk about it to get the message out there that people need to educate themselves on what real health is. People’s bodies are different ... genetics ... We are into organic living, self-sustainable and cruelty-free. It doesn’t mean eating less; we eat more than we did when we ate meat.

“It’s a thrive diet — I’ve never been more energertic. We adhere to anything that will help our bodies thrive and nourish and help to do what we do. People make fun about vegans and vegetarians ... Well I have to look at your salami pictures and gloating about bits of dead animal stuck into a roll, so you can deal with my vegan photos.”

This troll better follow through and buy me all my damn groceries! 💅🏼 I got food to make, don't keep me waitin' ☝🏻️ pic.twitter.com/X0l4yH0xQ1 — Jessica Veronica (@Jessicaveronica) June 16, 2016

Last week on the The Veronicas’ Twitter page, the singers posted: “Nobody tells us what to do. What to write. What to sing. What to create. We do whatever the f--- we want.”

Jess has considered a similar follow up to confront the body-shamers.

Jess: “I was about to do a part two: No one tells us what to eat, what to wear. It’s important people know what is coming from The Veronicas is coming from The Veronicas. What prompted it was me reading something about how pop stars don’t write their own music and should they really be praised for music they don’t create? It’s a real stereotype. There’s different levels of art. Who cares? Elvis didn’t write every song he performed. No one’s trying to rip him apart. It’s important our fanbase know everything we create comes from us. Although we do pop music, everything on a creative level — musically, sonically, conceptually with videos and visual arts, stage wise — it all comes from us and what we want to create. It’s taken us a fair few years to get to a point where we’re surrounded by people who support that, who support our vision. There is strength behind these choices.

Hey, just so you know. Nobody tells us what to do. What to write. What to sing. What to create. We do whatever the f* we want. — The Veronicas (@TheVeronicas) June 8, 2016

“The most interesting thing to me is that people try to reduce it down and sexualise the image. That happened when we did radio interviews: ‘Oh your boobs are out’. Or websites said, ‘Veronicas naked on front cover’ for click bait. If you allow yourself to be vulnerable for art, the first thing people will do is exploit it and sexualise it to suit their need for attention. Because of that angle the media takes, you then get the trolls who take that on board and twist it as ‘The Veronicas are trying too hard to sexualise themselves for attention’. It doesn’t matter how much you explain something, the empowerment behind it, what we were trying to convey, that will always happen — for any artist. If people can exploit it for their own benefit they will. We just have to stand strong. It’s clickbait headlines. It’s to be expected. It doesn’t deter us from putting forward what we believe in. It’s patronising when people say, ‘Was that your idea?’ I wanted to answer, ‘No, the big boss of the record company forced us into it’. That’s the subtext. The only way the Veronicas could come to do a shot like that is if it came from us. There’s no big fat cat in a suit telling us to do anything. We’ve worked hard to be in this industry and in control.”