Chapter 1: exercise is "essential"

It is well known that social media influences beauty standards by promoting fit women in underwear or stimulating people to lose weight. Millions of people get hypnotised into thinking they should be as thin as all the photoshopped models. So does Katie. Katie is 24 years old and has been influenced ever since she joined social media around 7 years ago. She lives in a small village, were there is not much going on. "More reason for her to go to the gym every day", she likes to think to herself. Katie doesn't really have many hobbies, besides looking in the mirror trying to find every similarity on her body in comparisson with most of the women she follows on her social media. A huge variety of exercise routines and strikt diets is what keeps her busy every day. All that to maintain a thin figure to be satisfied with how she looks.


Katie lives in a bigger appartment along with two other girls around her age. Christine and Melany. Katie is very happy she met Christine a couple of years ago. They go to the gym together and maintain what they call a healthy lifestyle. On the other hand, Melany doesn't fancy any of their fitness activities and diets. Melany doesn't really use social media that often. She knows everything she sees or read on social media is either manipulated or written by people who just want to make others insecure or feel ashamed. Melany isn't neccesarily thin, but she defenitely isn't fat. Although her belly can shake around occasionally if she stuffed herself again after ordering food. She doesn't care what she eats. Katie always thinks to herself that Melany must have good genes which makes her jeaslous in a way.

One day, something happened that changed Katies perspective of social media for life. It started with a usual morning, 9.30 AM. Katie and Christine we're supposed to go to the gym at 9 but Katie overslept. "There you are, I was gonna kick your door down in a couple of minutes... wee need to go!" said Christine frustrated. Katie felt so ashamed. This had never happened to Katie. "Don't you dare forget that we are going to have lunch together at twelve!", Melany shouts from the kichten while making breakfast (she made the usual for herself, a couple of pancakes and in between some ice cream. She loved it). Katie shouted back to Melany as she and Christine were walking out the door. "Don't worry! This time we will remember. Otherwise you could already order something for us while you're waiting!". Before Melany could react, Katie and Christine already left the appartment.

Melany looked frustrated. It had already happened multiple times that Katie and Christine dissapointed her because of their lifestyle. One time, they were supposed to go to the best bakery in town to order something and watch a movie at home, but Katie and Christine didn't show up so Melany ordered a box of donuts and went home. She stuffed herself while being angry at Katie and Christine untill she was so bloated she could not see her feet anymore while looking down. Another time when it was Katie' birthday, Melany baked a cake for her which took a lot of effort. Katie didn't eat a single bite of it because she wanted to stick to her diet. Melany was so angry, she forced Katie to watch her eat the whole cake. Melany enjoyed it so much, the chair she sat in started to squeak.

"I swear to god" Melany whispered to herself while making her pancake mix, "If those two are not at the restaurant at twelve, I'll show them the other side of social media...". Even tho Melany wasn't much on social media, the times she was on social media, she always chose to ignore all thin models and diet tips. One day she stumbled upon a model, but this time she admired what she saw. A women laying on her side in a bikini, a belly so round it hang towards the floor. Her arms and legs looked so soft, and her face looked like someone was pressing her cheecks together. Melany could already imagine all the jigglying while the women layed down to take that picture. Melany stated to see more and more plussize models. Eventually they weren't even plussize anymore, they were straight up SSBBWs showing off their bodies, how big they were and how much they enjoyed and admired their belly. Melany admired these women so much, she immedeatly wanted to show Katie and Christine. But since Christine, and especially Katie, had never seen anything like it on social media, Melany thought they would'nt understand the beauty of it. So she kept it to herself

It was 11.45 AM, and Katie and Christine were not back yet. Over at the gym, Katie was working out as much as she could because she still felt bad she overslept. Christine was worried about her. "Come on Katie, we need to go have lunch with Melany otherwise she'd kill us". Christine always felt bad the way they treated Melany. Seeing Katie and her going to the gym everyday probably made Melany feel lonely a lot. Christine did care about her body a lot but she always was the one who needed Katie to slow down before she'd pass out because she was working out too much. Or saying to Katie she needs to eat more because only a salad every day would not be healthy. But this time, Katie was unstoppable. She chose to ignore Christine, turned up the volume of her headphones and ran even faster on the treadmill.

It was 12.30 AM when Katie and Christine got home. When they came back, the whole kitchen table was covered with the geasy food. A couple of pizza boxes, a plate of bacon that was still bubbling while being covered in fat, plates with loaded fries, Ice cream that had already metled, and many varieties of hamburgers spread over the table. Katie and Christine were in shock. Although Christine really liked the smell of all the food. Both had not eaten that day yet. "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS" Katie screamed. "YOU...ARE..LATE" Melany shouted from the room across thw kitchen. "You are late, over and over and over again because of that stupid gym you go to! Do you have any idea how that makes me feel? How miserable that makes me feel?! How lonely that mekes me feel?!" The fact Melany said this made Christine feel even worse since she already suspected it. "Calm down Melany!" katie yells. "We go to the gym because its healthy. Because we care about our bodies. We can't just sit around and do nothing like you do everyday just for you to feel happy! Yeah we're a bit late, but we can still go to this restaurant so you can throw away all that discusting food and order some healthy food!" Katie was overwhelmed with emotions. Melany could not believe what she was hearing. "NO, THATS ENOUGH" Melany walked towards Katie and Christine, grabbed them by their arms, and took them to her room. "Melany let go! I at least need to take a shower before we go to the restaurant!". Christine did not resist because she felt so bad. "WE ARE NOT GOING TO THE RESTAURANT ANYMORE" Melany screamed. "I am going to show you something that will make an end to your "ideal" image of beauty standards!".