25 February 2021
Newsdesk
Former Little Mix star Jesy Nelson gave herself a hard time at the height of her self-abuse issues, because she thought being different would make her happier.
The singer revealed in a post to Instagram that she "mentally bullied" herself to please others and once starved herself to get skinny fast.
Looking back at a "sad" post-workout snap Jesy, who quit Little Mix in December for the sake of her mental health, wrote: "I just saw this picture pop up on my feed and it made me feel so sad."
She explained: "On the day this picture was taken, I remember going to the gym with my manager and I stood in the mirror and I said, 'God, I'm so fat I just want my legs to be like this (sic)'. I pulled my skin around to try and create a thigh gap because I genuinely believed that being skinny would make me happier."
Jesy slimmed to a size eight, but still was far from satisfied: "It's taken me 10 years to realise that I'm the only person I need to please."
She mused: "as humans we find it so easy to pay other people compliments but yet we find it so hard to be kind to ourselves because it's so much easier to pick ourselves apart than to find the things we love about ourselves."
The Woman Like Me singer hopes her missteps will help fans struggling with body image issues: "If you're someone who is feeling like I was, please don't waste years of you're life seeking approval from others, seek approval from yourself (sic)," she added.
"Be your number one fan. You are the one in control of your happiness and you are the only one of you in this world and that's pretty f**king powerful!" she urged.
