Taylor Swift

Among the various precautions (or lack thereof) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, recognition has been sent towards celebrities who have taken to social media to urge their fans to stay home and practice social distancing. One of these stars is the well-known Taylor Swift, who is also credited with stressing the importance of voting to her fans in 2018 and sharing her struggles with an eating disorder in her 2020 Netflix documentary “Miss Americana.” Swift dives deeply into the cause of her eating disorder in an interview on the documentary with Variety.

Swift explains how the constant scrutiny of gossip columnists, headlines, and fans affected her perception of herself. Specifically, she recounts the negative and positive feelings she experienced when she was on the cover of a magazine under the headline “Pregnant at 18?” and when she was praised at a photoshoot, respectively. Swift explains how these critiques and compliments greatly affected her relationship with food, as well as her body image issues, whether it was undereating because she did a “bad thing” or sufficiently eating because she did a “good thing.”

It’s exemplary how Swift has opened up about something so personal, especially with the spotlight constantly following her. There are two very important lessons that you can take from her. First, even compliments can cause body image issues and eating disorders. If these compliments are constantly about the way that you look, it can cause too much cautiousness around your body. Second, body type is not always indicative of an eating disorder or body image issues. Being “healthy” doesn’t exempt you in the same way that being very skinny doesn’t. Mental health issues don’t pick and choose based on the way you look… or how famous you are.