In her new poetry book Feel Your Way Through, Kelsea Ballerini opens up about her struggles with body dysmorphia and an eating disorder as a teenager.
In her poem, “Kangaroo”, Kelsea writes that like many girls she had “body image issues” when she was a teen and they were intensified when boys at school started calling her “kangaroo” because of her “belly and little legs.”
She told People that after a performance on the Today Show in 2015 she “saw an article pop up, and it said, ‘Ballerini debuts baby bum. I reverted back to that 12-year-old version of me but thought: Either you’re going to get triggered by this all the time, or you’re going to get to a point where you’re okay enough to look past it.”
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Today, Kelsea says, “I’m in a much healthier spot, and I’m much more gentle with how I talk to myself and my body, There are still days where I revert back to being that 12-year-old, and I have to catch myself, and hold myself accountable to the work I’ve done.”
Kelsea has fired back against body shamers in the past.
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