Taylor Swift is an American popstar who has released 12 albums and over 226 songs. Throughout her fame, there have been some struggles with her eating habits and body due to all the pressure always on her.

During the release of her album 1989 (2013-15), Swift became extremely popular, especially after her most successful song of all time, “Shake it Off,” came out. Every time she walked out her door, she would be flooded with cameras. Swift stated that, “It is not good for me to see pictures of myself every day." Having millions of people on the Internet judge your body daily can be damaging to a person, and that is what really sparked her eating disorder. She started to starve herself and exercise way more than normal. This was happening during one of her biggest tours and she almost pass out halfway throughout the show.  

Taylor was raised to believe you got punished for bad things and praised for good, so she applied that mindset to all her critics. The first time she made an appearance on the front cover of a magazine the headline was “Pregnant at 18?” since she wore pants that made her look like she had a bulging stomach. She registered that as a bad thing and felt she needed to be punished, so she continued to starve herself and exercise until she physically could not anymore. Once when she went to try on outfits for upcoming photoshoots she slipped right into the outfit and got praised for it. Since what she was doing was perceived as the “right thing” she continued to do so to be praised by the media. 

She slowly recovered soon after her tour of her 5th album was over. Taylor realized that “if you eat food, have energy, get stronger, you can do all these shows and not feel enervated,” so she started her road to recovery. Actress and Activist, Jameela Jamil, helped her correct her mindset. Swift is a huge fan of her works since how Jamil talks about body image and how women are treated as they age by men. Jamil talks about how women are held to such an absurd expectation when it comes to beauty and Taylor relates to that a lot.  

By her 6th album “Reputation” tour in 2018, Taylor was looking much healthier and better than ever. She went from a size 00 to a size 6 and is happier than ever. Swift hopes any woman who is going through negative body imaging understands the impracticality of everyone achieving the beauty standard of having curves and a flat stomach at the same time. “I do not care what anyone thinks about me, because that is not possible. But you can decide whose opinions matter more and whose opinions you put more weight on. And that is really part of growing up, if you are going to do it right. That is part of hoping to find some sort of maturity and balance in your life.”

~Natasha