Hi, I'm skinny

I am five feet seven inches and weigh one hundred and five pounds

Yes, I have a flat stomach

Yes, You can see my collar bones

Yes, I have a thigh gap

And no, that does not make me beautiful

 

Hi, I'm skinny

And I have been taught to say thank you for the jokes and the insults hurled at me since I was ten

because everyone wants to be skinny, right?

"Do you ever eat?"

"I bet if you turned sideways you would disappear!"

"You must care way too much about your appearance."

"I hate that you're thinner than me."

"You look like a twig!"

"Someone get this girl a cheeseburger!"

"You're such a skinny bitch."

"Are you anorexic?"

 

Hi, I'm skinny

And there is so much more to me than my weight 

I like to dance and read and cook and listen to music and paint

I have a voice that wants to be hear

But all you see are my collar bones

 

Hi, I'm skinny

And I have had a forty-year-old woman ask if I am anorexic and a twelve-year-old  girl say she wants to look like me in the same day

And people wonder what is wrong with society 

 

Skinny does not mean anorexic

Skinny does not mean vain

Skinny does not mean get this girl a cheeseburger

Skinny does not mean that you have the right to comment on the body of a twelve-year-old girl who you don't even know like she is a display at an art museum 

Skinny does not mean beautiful

 

Hi, I'm skinny

But that doesn't mean I want to be