summer body talk, unpacked
The Skinny Trend Is Back — And It's Pulling Us Away From Ourselves
If you've spent any time scrolling lately, you've probably noticed it: the "skinny trend" is making a comeback. Influencers — even those with advanced degrees and professional credentials in health and wellness spaces — are casually promoting it. "Summer ready" content is everywhere. New bathing suit hauls. Body transformation timelines. Before-and-after side-by-sides designed to make you feel like you're falling behind.
It's exhausting. And it's working.
But here's the thing: every time this trend resurfaces, it pulls people further from something far more valuable — a genuine connection with their own body and what it can actually do.
From Comparison to Connection
When we were younger, comparison was local. You looked at the people in your school, your town, your circle. Then came Facebook, and the net widened. Now, with platforms like TikTok, we're comparing ourselves to complete strangers whose backgrounds, lifestyles, and circumstances we know nothing about.
We don't know where they came from. We don't know what their health history looks like. We don't know if the person they present online is even who they actually are. Yet we absorb their content and apply it to ourselves as if it were a personal standard we're failing to meet.
The antidote isn't to delete every app (though a break never hurts). It's to separate yourself from what you consume. Take in what's healthy and responsible for your wellbeing. Leave the rest.
Body Neutrality: The Starting Point You Didn't Know You Needed
Most people are familiar with body positivity — the practice of loving how you look. But body neutrality is a different, and often more accessible, starting point.
Body neutrality asks you to simply acknowledge the basic facts of your body without judgment. I have two legs. I have ten toes. I have a chin, eyes, and ears. No praise. No criticism. Just recognition.
From that neutral baseline, you can begin to appreciate something deeper: how your body functions. Not how it looks in a mirror, but what it does for you every single day — getting you out of bed, carrying you through your work, moving you through the world.
This is where the shift happens. When you stop evaluating your body as an object to be judged and start experiencing it as a vessel that serves you, everything changes.
Your Body Is an Ecosystem — Treat It Like One
It might feel uncomfortable to hear, but it's a fact: we are still animals. Our bodies were literally built to run, carry, and move. Our brains developed to seek comfort — and now that we have an unprecedented abundance of it, many of us feel unsettled without even knowing why.
In his book The Comfort Crisis, Michael Easter explores this exact tension. He argues that our modern abundance of comfort has left us disconnected from our body's natural instincts. We were designed to endure, to overcome, to use our physical form. When we strip that away, we don't just lose fitness — we lose a sense of purpose and drive.
The solution isn't to go live in the wilderness (unless that's your thing). It's to create controlled, safe ways to embody the physical capability your body was built for. Rucking. Hiking. Mindful movement. Intentional exercise that reconnects you to the signals your body sends — signals we've learned to turn down until they become white noise.
Training for Function, Not for the Mirror
Here's a truth that might surprise you: some of the strongest-looking people in the gym are functionally weak where it matters most.
Bodybuilders frequently seek help for shoulder pain — not because they aren't strong, but because they've trained for cosmetics, not function. They've built muscle that looks impressive but doesn't move the way a body needs to move in real life.
Meanwhile, someone who trains for function — who wants to be able to say "yes" to life, to hike a 14er, to run, to carry, to show up — builds a body that carries them further, even if it never matches an Instagram aesthetic.
Your body shape is not everybody else's body shape. It was built based on how you used it during its formative years. The arch of your foot, the proportion of your frame, the way your muscles develop — these are uniquely yours. And that's something to be proud of, not something to correct.
The Projection Problem
Here's a hard truth worth sitting with: how we judge others is how we view ourselves.
When someone fixates on another person's post-pregnancy body, or critiques a stranger's cosmetic choices, or insists they'd "never be caught looking like that" — that's not about the other person. That's projection. It's the external expression of an internal standard they've imposed on themselves.
We can't speak to someone else's experience if we've never lived it. And applying someone else's body story to your own — or your own insecurities to someone else's body — only deepens the disconnect.
What About Cosmetic Procedures?
Let's be clear: this isn't about shaming anyone's choices. If you've explored every avenue, done the inner work, and still feel a persistent, genuine desire to make a change — and you have the financial means to do so responsibly — that's your call.
But the key question is: are you doing it for you, or for someone else?
The danger of the cosmetic path is the dopamine loop. You see a wrinkle disappear (temporarily — they come back), you get a hit, and then you need more. Bigger procedures. Larger investments. And the resources being allocated — financially, emotionally, physically — start to compound.
If we start with mental wellbeing and body neutrality, chances are it leads us down a different path. One where the changes we make are rooted in self-respect, not self-correction.
Technology, Connection, and the Loneliness Epidemic
It's worth naming the larger context: we are more connected than ever in human history, yet genuine connection is harder to find. People are reporting record levels of loneliness and social anxiety. Many feel fearful of stepping into unknown situations — worried about how they'll be perceived, how they'll present, whether they'll belong.
But here's the flip side: when you pay attention to yourself — when you allow yourself to be the person you actually are — that fear starts to dissolve. Confidence isn't about looking perfect. It's about being so sure of who you are that other people feel safe around you. And that kind of confidence is magnetic. It draws people in. It builds community.
Your Summer Takeaway
As we move into the season of swimsuits, pool days, and showing more skin, here's what to hold onto:
Nobody is watching you the way you watch you. Everyone is focused on themselves.
It's not about how you look — it's about how you feel in the clothes you're wearing and the skin you're in.
Start with body neutrality. Acknowledge what your body is before worrying about what it looks like.
Train for function. Build a body that can say "yes" to life, not one that fits a trend.
Don't consume everything you consume. Filter what you take in. Protect your mental space.
Have fun. Life is short. Summer is shorter. Wear what makes you feel good. Move in ways that make you feel alive. And enjoy it.
Your body is your ecosystem. You're in charge of it. Take care of it, and it will take you very, very far.
