This week, I logged onto Facebook to see that Daisy Ridley was trending. I excitedly clicked on her name, since I've been in love with her after seeing "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." My heart broke as I read that Ridley is being bullied because of her body. However, it's not the type of bullying you may think of at first. Internet haters are firing at Ridley for her slim appearance, claiming that she's setting "unrealistic expectations" for women.

I was immediately transported back to my freshman year of high school. I had a rough battle with puberty. My body changed in ways I didn't know it could. In middle school, I was short and chubby. Once I got to high school, my legs got longer, my tummy disappeared and my face narrowed. It was like as if every day I found a new change. My pants became baggier. I looked lost in every shirt. No matter how much I ate, I didn’t gain any weight. Sure, it seemed great, but it was actually a nightmare. I weighed just over 100 pounds. My BMI just passed into the “normal” range.

That year, I had a routine conference with my Dance and Theater teachers about my progress in their classes. After they finished their critiques, my Dance teacher hesitantly asked, “Are you healthy?” I was stunned. I assured her that yes, I was healthy, and asked why she wondered. “You’ve lost a lot of weight lately,” she replied. At a doctor’s appointment, my doctor asked my mom to leave the room. She began questioning me about my eating and exercise habits and even went so far as to asking me if I had an eating disorder.

Aside from being questioned by adults, girls my age made nasty comments to me. When I would talk to my friends about my body, they would always shut me down. Girls who had healthy bodies would constantly tell me “Well, you wouldn’t understand. You’re skinny.” People had this idea that just because I was skinny meant that I didn’t have any problems at all. They thought that because I wasn’t overweight, I didn’t have boy problems, friend problems or school problems.

I was constantly called a “toothpick.” I was told on numerous occasions to “go eat a hamburger.” I’ve been followed into the bathroom multiple times after eating to make sure that I wasn’t throwing up my meal. Another regular comment was: “You need to get some meat on those bones!” I once had a boyfriend ask me one day what I ate and how much of it I kept down. At family gatherings, instead of looking in my eyes while I spoke, family members would shift their eyes from my plate, to my body, and back to my plate before asking me if I wanted more food, then dumping more food on my plate even after I told them I was full.

Probably one of the lowest points in my life was when I was working as a camp counselor and one of the little girls ran up to me and gave me a huge hug. She looked up and me and said “One day, I’ll be skinny like you.” I had to excuse myself to cry in the bathroom. I felt like a monster. An 8-year-old girl who was completely healthy was already comparing herself to me, a 14-year-old girl who couldn’t control what was happening to her body.

That’s exactly what was happening: I couldn’t control what was happening to my body. I know for a fact that many other girls feel similarly in all types of situations. I’m fed up with this idea that skinny girls are not good role models, and that is why I am speaking up.

This is not an article trashing overweight and/or non-skinny girls. I thoroughly believe that all body types are beautiful and should be embraced. The world also has this view, and always tries to validate that all people are beautiful. However, sometimes people go about it the wrong way. For example, listening to Meghan Trainor and Nicki Minaj constantly call me a “skinny b*tch” on the radio was not fun. Or logging onto Facebook and reading that “real women have curves.” Was I not a “real” woman because my body didn’t curve? Another popular one was that “real men like meat; only dogs like bones.” Here’s a friendly reminder that telling girls that men won’t like them if they’re not this way or that way is not the proper way to build up confidence from within.

It was also difficult when the “thigh gap” and “bikini bridge” challenges were trending. Fitness experts and doctors wrote articles reminding girls that women who did have bikini bridges and thigh gaps were actually not healthy. I understood what they were trying to accomplish, but it wasn’t fun looking at myself in the mirror, thigh gap and bikini bridge and all, and having to remind myself that even though I couldn’t control how I was developing, it didn’t mean that there was anything wrong with me, no matter what people said. I know that there are girls who do that every day. There are girls, skinny and not skinny, who look in the mirror and wonder why they can’t just be healthy.

I eventually gained weight in my senior year of high school, when I got mono. I wasn’t allowed to exercise, and I was eating a lot due to boredom and stress. I exercise regularly now, and though I’m not completely in love with myself yet, I’m pretty happy with my body. I did develop some curves (like my butt, which I love!) and I’m not super bony anymore.

Even though I have gained some weight, I’m still considered small. I get cold (and drunk!) very easily. The rude comments have slowed down, but they haven’t completely stopped. Sometimes, I have to remind people that I don’t eat healthily and exercise because I want to lose weight, but because I want my heart and body to be healthy in other ways. I have to remind myself of the parts of my body that I love, like my butt, my eyelashes and my hair.

Everyone has something that they want to change about themselves, but putting others down isn’t the way to go. It’s time to embrace all body types without putting others down. Stop assuming that women who are skinny are sick and that women who are overweight are not beautiful. Just because Daisy Ridley looks a certain way does not undermine any of her achievements or the achievements of her character. As feminists, as people in general, it’s our job to lift each other up, so it’s time that we start doing that.