Why This Woman Says Becoming Fat Saved Her Life

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She triumphed over body dysmorphia and realized that being fit and happy has nothing to do with what the scale says. Still, Danica Marjanovic constantly heard from people that she was healthier when she was a size 10 rather than the size 16 she wears today.

Fed up, the body positive activist is clapping back at critics who believe that only skinny bodies are healthy bodies. Marjanovic has taken to Instagram to share her before and after pictures, making the case that accepting her body and even gaining some weight truly saved her sanity—if not her life.

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"My mental health is more important than diet or exercise," reads the caption in one image, making a point about how unhappy she was trying to be thin. Marjanovic says she's recovering from undiagnosed anorexia, which she never sought treatment for because she never felt she was "skinny enough" for her food issues to be taken seriously. Now, seven years after overcoming her disordered eating and no longer buying into cultural norms that equate healthy with slim, she's finally loving herself—and her body.

To her critics, "[my] appearance as someone who was a suicidal size 10 girl with an eating disorder is more admirable than a size 16 woman who has overcome her issues with mental health," she writes, throwing shade on the idea that being heavy can't possibly be healthy.

Marjanovic points out that being thin is not an accomplishment, nor does it reflect a person's happiness. When she was underweight, she notes, no one commented on her overall health. Now as a heavier person, she says that people feel free to tell her she isn't healthy.

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We're with Marjanovic here: It's time we got over the idea that fat bodies are unhealthy bodies, and that all slim people are healthy and happy. As Marjanovic says: "[The] fat on your body has NOTHING to do with how healthy and happy you can be in life."