I have a vivid memory of me standing on my bathroom toilet in an attempt to get a full-length view of my outfit. I was twelve and the hippy era smiley faces had made a comeback. I had talked my Mom into getting me a white baseball style t-shirt with a yellow smiley face. I was wearing this with bell-bottom style pants that sat low on my hips. My hair was parted in the middle. I felt cool in my outfit. But this is around the time I started criticizing my body. I remember thinking that maybe I looked a bit too squishy with my baby fat cheeks and soft abdomen.

I was in middle school and the transition from Elementary school had been a challenging one. The soundtrack to my year was Leonardo DiCaprio's Romeo and Juliet. My new middle school had a large population of skateboarders and an equally large H...

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