Her Before-and-After Pics Have an Unusual Twist

Megan Jayne Crabbe says she was just 5 years old when she first began to hate her body. She thought her classmates were prettier and thinner, and gradually began to believe that if she were also thin, she could be pretty, too, reports the Independent. By 10, she was dieting; by 14, she was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa; and soon she weighed 65 pounds and was being fed through a tube in a hospital. So the transformation pics she's been posting to her positive-body Instagram page @bodyposipanda are a bit unusual, in that she looks thin and athletic before, and has tummy rolls now. She tells US Weekly that these are "reverse before-and-afters."

That's because the thin woman in 2014 was miserable, reports Today, while the heavier 24-year-old UK caregiver is beaming today. "As it turns out, happiness isn't a size," she writes. "I wasted far too many years believing that it was." So far she's responded to several negative comments in stride. For example, one of the more than 7,000 comments reads: "Wait so you just decided to RUIN your body?" Crabbe replies: "Nah, I just stopped torturing myself every day for not fitting an image I was never supposed to be." She emphasizes that she's not scolding thin people to gain weight. She just wants people to have "mental freedom," and adds, "This is my happy body." (Some women find it hard looking at plus-sized models, too.)