I was 14 when I first saw my body. Not just a simple glance in the mirror, but an in-depth self-analysis.

I looked at the folds on my stomach, how my thighs shook when I walked, how my arms jiggled when I waved goodbye to my friends, and how my cheeks puffed up when I smiled.

It didn’t matter that I was a growing girl, that I was only 14 and my body was shifting and rearranging in ways I couldn’t even name. All that mattered was that I didn’t look like the girls on TikTok.

Whether we like it or not, thin is most definitely back. With the rise in Ozempic use among not only celebrities but also everyday people, it’s becoming more and more expected that we should be slim.

Every time I opened TikTok, I was bombarded by ultra-thin “Pilates princesses” who ate tiny servings of food and looked amazing. As a 14-year-old, there was nothing I wanted more than that. Soon, my For You page was flooded with young girls posting tiny portions of food with no nutritional value.

I saw videos of K-pop idols who were clearly malnourished, recipes for low-calorie meals, the best exercises for a slim waist and photos of celebrities getting thinner by the day.

At first, I thought how crazy it was. But five years later, I noticed myself taking on these habits. By the middle of this year, I had lost so much weight that friends said they were concerned. But that didn’t matter once I started getting comments on Instagram about how pretty and skinny I was.

I eventually realized that no matter how many people called me skinny, I was never going to be thin enough to fit the standard that my sick brain wanted.

Then I realized that’s OK. I don’t need to fit someone else’s standards. Your weight doesn’t dictate whether you are worthy.

In the past few months, I’ve been trying to heal my relationship with food, social media and my body. While every day is a struggle, learning to differentiate real life from the artificial world of social media makes recovery possible.

A lot of people with eating disorders don’t think they can recover until they are underweight or until they feel “worthy” enough. But if I can do it, so can you.