Australian model Bridget Malcolm is no stranger to having people discuss her body as if it’s public property.
The 26-year-old Victoria’s Secret alum’s weight has been a topic of insatiable media interest for years now.
While that’s not unusual for women who model for a living, Malcolm’s had a particularly rough trot. Trolls have told her to “eat a burger”, others have speculated that she’s “anorexic”. All the while, agents and modelling reps have insisted she lose weight.
Despite the emotional toll this would no doubt take, Malcolm has been steadfast in fighting back and raising awareness about the unrealistic standards of the media, the modelling industry, and the people who attack her behind anonymous avatars.
Malcolm keeps up a blog where she invites her followers to ask her anything. One fan wrote to her, asking her how to “get rid of eating disorder and become vegan,” and Malcolm used this as an opportunity to go deep on her journey with restrictive eating.
“First off, I am not a doctor,” she writes.
“Second off, I have never had an eating disorder. I have definitely had my share of disordered eating, and evil, commanding voices in my head, but thankfully never a fully blown eating disorder. So I can’t really speak from experience too strongly here, only a little – but I can certainly tell you instinctively what I feel in your situation.”
She goes on to describe that after 12 years of restrictive eating, she has finally “let go of the desire to be as small as possible at the expense of truly living.”
“It makes me sad to think of all the time I wasted on dieting myself to a personality-less state. Life is too short to be the one always ordering steamed vegetables after training for two hours straight.”
Malcolm admits to binge eating to the point of sickness, describing how she would have “treat days” were she’s eating until she “could barely move.”
“I was refusing to eat anything that was a carbohydrate that did not come from vegetables. So after about a week I would just go nuts, and eat everything I could. After integrating healthy wholegrains and fruits into my diet, this binge cycle slowly faded out. Every now and again I do eat more than normal, but it isn’t accompanied with a feeling of being out of control and needing to eat ALLTHEFOODDAMNIT.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bek1jDPndFH/?hl=en&taken-by=bridgetmalcolm
While Malcolm often posts about her vegan diet and training regime on Instagram, she assured the anonymous commenter that she enjoys ice cream, too.
“I eat a little fruit each day, healthy whole grains such as quinoa or wild rice, good fats from nuts and avocados and the damn ice cream if I want it, my feelings towards those foods changed.”
She finished up her answer with a sage paragraph:
“Don’t deny yourself one of the joys of life that food and good company can bring. Life is short, so bring happiness to yourself every day, however that looks for you. I love to eat! It just took me twelve years to be able to be truthful with myself about this. And twelve years to throw out all my fucks to give about societies concept of how I should look. Join me.”
We just might.
