Tess Holliday reveals ‘almost debilitating’ body image struggle

Tess Holliday has opened up about suffering from “almost debilitating” body image issues that take up “so much work and energy just to be able to leave the house”.

The plus-size model wrote candidly about her struggle with negative body image, telling her 2.4 million followers on Instagram that she has “never experienced” it this badly before.

The 36-year-old revealed that she was diagnosed with anorexia last May. In January this year, she said she had been working to repair her relationship with food but admitted that recovery has been “messy”.

In a recent Instagram post, Holliday shared a series of photographs from a family Easter weekend trip to the California coast.

She wrote: “I’m gonna be honest, I’ve been really struggling with body image in a way I’ve never experienced.

“It’s been almost debilitating because even though ya’ll see me out having fun, it sometimes takes so much work and energy just to be able to leave the house.

“I’m the kind of gal that always wants my photo taken, until lately… and these are some of the first photos I’ve taken in a while where I saw myself in them and was kind,” she added.

“Soaking up this family time and feeling grateful, even when it’s tough.”

The model and mother of two wrote in an essay for Today earlier this year that she was “as shocked as everyone” when she was diagnosed with anorexia.

She revealed that over the last decade, she restricted what she ate, which meant “I don’t eat – or when I do eat, it’s very little”. She added that “sometimes, it’s one large meal a day”.

Holliday said that her dietitian first brought the possibility that she may have the eating disorder to her attention.

“When she said anorexia, I laughed,” Holliday wrote. “I thought, ‘Do you see how fat I am? There’s no way that word could ever be attached to someone my size’.

“She referred me to a psychologist, who confirmed the diagnosis.”

Since her diagnosis, Holliday has spoken out about the stigma attached to the eating disorder and the assumption that people who do not appear thin can suffer from it.

When Holliday revealed her diagnosis on Twitter on 1 May 2021, she wrote: “I’m not ashamed to say it out loud anymore. I’m the result of a culture that celebrates thinness and equates that to worth, but I get to write my own narrative now.”

The model recently told US talk show host Tamron Hall that she “could have gotten help sooner” if there wasn’t a weight bias associated with anorexia.