This past year, the portrayals of self love and appreciation for others have been very relevant. Whether it is seen in videos clogging up our feed, our favorite Netflix show, or even a recently released book, there are lessons of teaching one how to be their best-selves all around us. The specific concept of self-love, specifically for one’s body image, have been discussed more than ever before, yet, many people are still being body shamed and looked down upon based off of their appearance.

Youtube is a platform where youtubers share different aspects of their lives with viewers and although this may be a time to share very positive and moving moments in their lives, it could also be a time to share the worst, most difficult points in their life as well.

Youtube personality MissRemiAshten is 22 and has been making Youtube videos for the past six years of her life. When she began posting videos online, she was considered overweight and did not fit the look that most youtube personalities tried to present. During this time period of her life she was extremely bullied and called names such as “pig”, “obese”, “ugly”, as well as many other vulgar words to make fun of her appearance.

Over this past year Remi Ashten has lost about 50 pounds in a matter of three months. Due to her newly healthy lifestyle, she was able to see herself become more confident as well more internally happy. Although she transformed from someone who was considered “large” and lost a large amount of weight, she still received comments criticizing her weight, her looks, and even her bubbly personality.

In a video released on November 28 2018, Remi Ashten did a social experiment that took place on her instagram. She chose to pose for a photo the exact way that youtube personality Alissa Violet posed for her instagram photo. Remi wanted to see what the comments on her photo compared to Alissa Violet’s photo would be and notice changes regarding comments about her body before her weight loss compared to her present-day body.

Immediately there were numerous comments flooding in from her friends and subscribers expressing how proud they were of her or expressing how amazing she looked in the photo and since her “transformation”. Although there were many comments that would represent what we would consider “self-love”, there were also many comments from those who were expressing how they believed she became “slutty” or comments claiming she changed so much from the person she used to be. Comments like this triggered Ashten as she felt comments about how she had changed from when she used to be larger had become a recurring phrase throughout all her social media pages.

In the past, she posted videos of her dancing in ways that she found comical, as well as videos of her legally drinking on a yacht during her birthday and celebrating the special day with her friends. At this time, the comments were filled with how fun and creative she was, or about how she was living her best life and nothing should ruin that for her.

Coincidentally, she recently posted a video of her dancing the same routine, yet the comments were extremely different than those on the original video. They were filled with phrases saying that she is trying to show off her body and she should stop acting this way as it can influence young girls to do the same. Ashten was hurt and frustrated as the only thing that had changed was her body shape, not her personality.

Sophomore, Nikki Spinak states, “Self love is so vital because each and every person is unique and you must realize that in order to feel confident and happy. However, so many people are upset with how they appear due to body shaming. This needs to stop as we are all human and beautiful in our own ways.”

The idea of loving yourself and others is stressed all over social media, yet the same horrific comments are occuring every day. There must be a point in time where body shaming comes to an end and the idea of loving yourself and others for the way they are begins. This change can only start with us, the future generation.