1997

That was the first year I started a diet. It consisted of grapefruit and water and sometimes a handful of fruit snacks and it only lasted a week but it certainly wasn't the last. I was 8 and had just started third grade. I would put into my head that these weird eating habits I was developing would help me be as thin as the models and actresses I saw on television. I wasn't the only one doing it either, I had a group of friends that also were on this diet. We all wanted to make sure we would be in our tiny bodies forever. I soon became the odd one out, an early bloomer. I got teased and ridiculed by some of my best friends because I had a body they had never even thought of developing someday. I was so angry with my body that I would lay in bed and just poke at my new hips, cry over the new muscles that were growing fast and that there was nothing I could do about it.I was only 8 years old. I wish someone would've told me then how beautiful I was.

You are all so beautiful and amazing. Keep sending in your pictures to loveyoubeautiful@gmail.com. I love them so much and can't wait to share them with the rest of the world.