gymnastics is kind of known for just um the struggles with body image and eating
disorders and i remember from a very young age i started getting weighed in body fat tested
and just this desire to be small it was like you do anything to be that
so i struggled a lot with eating disorder issues so like disorder type eating so
restriction and just seeing myself in a light that i didn't like
yeah i'm just proud that
i'm able to talk about those things um
in a genuine way to just build relationships with women and hopefully make them feel less broken why
because i've spent a lot of my life feeling broken feeling unlovable
just feeling like a messing up or like that i don't have purpose where i'm at and
i worked really hard through some of my own my own issues and my own things that
you know i've grown up with some family trauma i've been through some things in my life i've
um would never want a young woman to grow up feeling the way that maybe i felt
and i think there's a space in this world that we can help each other to that
i think what i've learned is that more women
struggle with it than you think and so i think i just learned that you're not alone in that space
to finish up another title is coming to cookeville i think just to talk myself through some of
not stepping back into those bad patterns or thoughts about that is reminding myself about
the truth of who i am and who god says i am and that my identity is not in what i look
like or you know my accomplishments or accolades like all those things are really cool and fun
but being able to be in community with someone or in a relationship with somebody that's kind
of where the magic is i think life is fleeting it's really short so i don't want to waste days
hating myself or worried about what i look like or putting on this air that everything's perfect
and that oh yeah you can do it you know just cut those cows and you'll look like
you know this girl over here because that's not the reality right we want to live and
love ourselves so that we can love other people well and that's that's what's important to me
i would tell a young woman that they're valuable they're loved and they're worthy
of being truly who they are their authentic self
that we don't have to shrink down and be small you can be all that you are whatever that looks like
and there is beauty in that space when you're free to be who you are
you