Tess Holliday Responds to Critic Who Questions Anorexia Diagnosis Just Because She ‘Exists in a Larger Body’

"I also can't blame you for not knowing because I myself did not know," the model said about stereotypes relating to eating disorders

Tess Holliday is addressing misconceptions about anorexia nervosa and other restrictive eating disorders.

The model, 38, responded to a critic who said she was "not anorexic" and "just wanted attention" in a recent TikTok video. Holliday first went public with her restrictive eating disorder diagnosis in May 2021.

"Just because you don't like that I exist in a larger body and I deal with a restrictive eating disorder doesn't give you the right to just be a jerk," the body activist said, showing the critical comment on screen.

"I know a lot of you guys can't believe that someone in a larger body can deal with a restrictive eating disorder, but it is true," she said.

Related: Tess Holliday Is 'Really Struggling' with Her Body Image: 'It's Been Almost Debilitating'

Holliday then directed her followers to a 2022 New York Timesarticle titled "You Don't Look Anorexic" that featured people with larger bodies who had restrictive eating disorders.

"I also can't blame you for not knowing because I myself did not know," Holliday continued, addressing the commenter. "And the more folks that talk about it and the more folks that normalize it, then the less that we will have to deal with people like [the commenter] who think that they deserve to just say whatever because they don't like what they're hearing or seeing."

The Eff Your Beauty Standards founder, went on to address her anorexia and recovery: "I wish I was in a good place with my recovery and I felt like this was something that I wanted to talk about more, but I currently don't," she said.

"I'm currently just managing things the best I can, and if you don't like what I'm saying or how I talk about my lived experiences, then there are a million other people that you can follow, bully, harass, whatever," Holliday ended the video.

Related: Tess Holliday Says She's 'Regressed' in Her Anorexia Recovery: 'This Has Been Extremely Hard'

“This comment [comes] up a lot & I’m sure will continue to. I chose to share this with the world & I know trolling comes with the territory, but if it helps one person thats all I care about,” the caption of the video read.

Holliday replied to the commenter on April 17, two days after she described her mental health as "a little fragile right now" in an April 15 video due in part to "fatphobic" comments.

"Sometimes some of us are just doing our best, we are," she said in the first video. "Sometimes we do make mistakes, we do. And we're not going to be perfect, we're not." Holliday went on to ask her followers not to call her "the most disgusting person on the planet" when she owns her mistakes.

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Holliday also spoke about the relationship she wants her kids to have with their bodies in a recent post on Instagram, asking people not to talk about dieting around her kids.

"Kids hear enough, and I want mine to have a healthy relationship with their bodies and respect others body autonomy as well," she wrote in the caption of a video on the topic.

If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, please go to NationalEatingDisorders.org.

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