You are more than enough

Todays quote is taken from a tweet by Sophia Bush a few days ago.

I know an inspirational quote and twitter don't really seem to go together...I myself joined twitter to fuel my latest obsession with a certain Aiden Grimshaw from this year's x factor...but I soon found out that there was a lot more to this latest fad than I initially thought. Yes you can 'follow' famous people and read their tweets, but this doesn't have to be in a negative thing. In this day and age, the obsession with celebrities can be dangerous, particularly on young people, but there are famous people out there who use their influence in a positive way. Sophia Bush is certainly one of them.

For any of you that don't know, Sophia Bush has starred on One Tree Hill for 8 years now. She is also a keen environmentalist and philanthropist. The show has managed to tackle some serious issues over the years, one of the most recent and poignant to myself was Sophia's character Brooke Davis and her reaction to eating disorders and the size zero trend. Her character owned a clothing line which did an entire campaign on the slogan 'zero is not a size', and Brooke refused models for her line who were too skinny, stating that they promote an unhealthy image. I couldn't agree more! Having suffered from an eating disorder myself, I know too well the affect of the media and the television and how they distort your perception of what is 'normal' and what is 'beautiful'. It was so refreshing to have a show fight back and promote the idea that everyone is beautiful.

As anyone who has ever had eating issues knows, you develop a bit of an unhealthy habit of noticing other people's size and weight more than any other person might. In programs like Desperate Housewives, the women are seen to be getting noticably thinner as the series progress, one new character even described it at 'Desperate Housewive's disease'. People getting thinner, and too thin, before your very eyes can provide only further ammunition to the eating disorder inside, no matter how long you have been in recovery. So once more I feel I have to applaud Sophia! She has been on the show for almost a decade now, and unlike the stars of Friends (particularly Monica and Rachel who seem to have a competition on who can become the thinnest in about season 5), she has maintained a similar body weight throughout. Obviously people's weight fluctuates, but again I find it refreshing that Sophia, who has a beautiful figure, does not seem to waste away the more successful the program gets! When actresses do get thinner as a series progresses it associates the concept of being thinner with being more successful and more famous - not healthy to young girls out there.

It's not only Sophia's character Brooke Davis who speaks out against the promotion of eating disorders though. A few weeks ago a man called Kenneth Tong (apparently on Big Brother at some point) started tweeting constantly 'thinspiration' and that everyone should be aiming for managed anorexia. Clearly Mr Tong has never himself, or had anyone close to him, suffer from anorexia! It's not even about the being thin most of the time. The desire to be thin is intertwined with the desire to succeed, to have control, to be perfect at something, to be the best, to comfort us when we seem unable to be able to do anything else right. It is not something anyone should desire, it's a phsycological problem, and NOT just an extreme diet. Anyway, Sophia, along with other celebrities such as Ashley Greene, Rhihanna, Simon Cowell, openly spoke out against Kenneth Tong and was not afraid to share her views.

A famous peron who we do not know should not be able to influence us so strongly. But the harsh reality is that they DO. I think it's amazing that Sophia is using her fame to remind us all that we are *all* special, we are *all* 'more than enough'. In this day and age, with the obsession with celebrity culture, we need more people like her who are promoting a healthy, happy lifestyle. She has become my 'inspiration' and helps me avoid any 'thinspiration' out there, as she is beautiful, healthy, and most importanly happy. Thank you!

xxxx