5″4 and 135 pounds.
Huge: arms, Stomach, Hips, and Thigs.

Hello. I need some help, maybe you are the right person to ask. Atleast I hope so. Well, let me start… I am 12 years old. Im in 7th grade. Youngest out of all my friends. I look around and see girls and guys who are so skinny. How do they do it?? I do not know what i am doing wrong! I excersize so much, and I am in great shape. I eat very healthy and I dont know when the last time I had fast food was. I feel super uncomfertable in tight clothes since my hips are majorly sticking out. What do I do in the Summer time when its time to wear a bikini? I am a size 7 in pants and probably a medium at like Hollister [with my fat hanging out of the clothes.] I hate this and cant stand it!!! If you can respond back that would be a big help.

Anne sent me this link yesterday, and I spent last night lying awake, thinking of what I could possibly say. This is what I came up with.

Oh my god, you are twelve years old. EVERYONE, even those people you envy, feels awkward and ugly when they’re twelve. Especially, unfortunately, young girls. You’re still developing and growing into your body and let me tell you something: your body is not going to be the same as anyone else’s. I know there are people out there who are naturally very skinny.. it’s not because they’re “doing something” that you’re not doing. It’s because they HAVE A DIFFERENT BODY TYPE THAN YOU DO. It doesn’t mean you can’t be active, healthy, athletic, fit, beautiful, and even thin. It just means you need to STOP COMPARING YOURSELF to these other people. It’s dangerous. It’s damaging. And one day you will regret it, I guarantee you that. You’ll look back on pictures of yourself at age 12 and wonder why you were so hard on yourself, why you wasted your energy worrying about attaining a body that you never could attain, when you were so young and full of life and potential and beauty.

You say you’re in “great shape” and you “eat very healthy” and you exercise. That’s it; you’re doing the best you can to take care of yourself; you’re not doing anything “wrong.” Society will send you messages all your life telling you you’re too skinny, or too fat. Nobody is immune from this—not even Hannah Montana. And 9 times out of 10, those people are trying to sell you something, even if what they’re selling is merely the idea that your purpose in life is to fit their unrealistic beauty standards. And the more you can see this happening, the more you can fight against it. Now you have to work on loving the body you have, dressing in a way that doesn’t make you feel uncomfortable and inadequate. Find clothes that fit you and make you happy. Love yourself. Your body is perfect right now. IT IS PERFECT.

And I know there will be more advice for you in the comments. Please keep reading.

Although we’re definitely not done with all the meta media aftermath (and Rachel has a good roundup today), I thought I’d take a break to share an actual post! About something else! Are you shocked? I was, when I read today that Miley Cyrus, the 15-year-old star otherwise known as Hannah Montana, thinks she’s fat.

According to Star Magazine:

Sometimes she can’t even eat and almost passes out on stage. She thinks she looks fat in fan pictures and that her legs and face are “all jiggly” to fans in the first row at concerts.

I sincerely hope this is something the tabloids have made up (like Jenna Fischer dating David Spade), and it isn’t how Miley actually feels. Although actually, that would be just as bad—as a story like that, true or false, can only make a beautiful 15-year-old girl feel bad about herself.

In trying to find out more about this, I also stumbled across this post from a mom:

Hollywood is ruining their young stars while making my kids have false expectations to boot. Already, I have to admonish my boys for thinking Sara Ramierez is fat. She’s a size 10. That’s not fat. Or even that Jennifer Love Hewitt isn’t fat. I mean come on, these two women are gorgeous. Just because they aren’t the size of the Olsen twins, doesn’t mean they are [fat].

It’s no secret that I think teenage girls suffer the most from the pressure to be extremely thin, particularly in Hollywood, where “fat” has been redefined to “size 4.” The response to pressure like that is so often to turn to drugs (Exhibit A: Jessica Sierra, who was called fat when she looked like this and is now on drugs and looks like this.)

Miley is beautiful and glowing. And girls everywhere look up to her. I hope we soon hear that she’s healthy, active, and happy with herself—as every teenage girl should be.