Cassey Ho is all about inspiring and empowering her fans through her fitness videos – but her followers haven’t always been the most supportive of her.
In fact, the YouTube star admits there was a time that caring about what people thought, said and did put her into a “physical war” with her body.
“I used to have an eating disorder and a body image disorder because I thought I had to be super skinny and super toned and all of that kind of stuff, and compared myself with other fitness people and Instagrammers,” Ho said at the #GirlLove panel on the Kia Main stage at VidCon 2016 on Thursday.
After being knocked down over and over again by the horrendous body-shaming comments she was exposed to, Ho says, “it becomes such a physical war on your body.”
“Your body is not what you’re about. You’re about what inside your body, inside your brain, your heart, your character, your talent,” said Ho, who was on the panel at the Anaheim Convention Center with Rosanna Pansino, Lilly Singh and Lindsey Stirling.
“Once you realize there’s so much more than your abs and your booty, then you can really thrive in life,” she said. “There is so much more to life than your body.”
Ho addressed and responded to the haters in a vlog posted by Cosmopolitan in November – finally standing up for herself and letting the world know she was no longer going to be a victim of online bullying.
“I don’t take it personally, because if it’s not going to make me be better, then it’s an invalid comment,” Ho explained in the video. “The people who are bullying you online, you probably need to block them. In your reality circle, if there are people that make you feel bad, get them out of your life too. You need to surround yourself with positivity.”
Visit HackHarassment.com to learn more about an initiative to make the internet a safer community
This article originally appeared on People.com
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