As athletes, we tend not to think about how we look – we just feel confident in our own skin. But sometimes that thought comes into our heads when we look on social media or looking in the mirror, and we ask ourselves “Am I fat?”, “Do I need to lose some weight?”. These questions get bigger and possibly more dangerous.
Body image is huge in today’s society . . . today’s society is full of judgement and hate. This topic hits home for me very well and maybe some of you. If you do not know who I am, I am Jessica Ziolkowski, I’m sixteen years old, and have been cheering for eleven years.
Since fifth grade I have been bullied for the way I walk, for maybe having a little Polish accent and being a bit special. To me, this was just a little thing that I thought would go away in middle school. Middle school was just a wreck for me, in eighth grade body image changed very quickly. Since we do have some younger ambassadors I will not mention what I had, but some medical issues that no one should ever go through because they think they need to lose weight.
It has been three years since all of this has happened and I am still recovering. If you had seen me even two years ago, you would be very surprised where I was in my life. I still did cheer, but I was not allowed to be on a level higher than a one, which is still a pretty impressive division in the cheer world. But to me, being on a level one meant I was never going to grow.
Everything did change – I started to love who I was, love how I looked, and most importantly did not let a number destroy my life anymore…
Here we are a couple years later, yes I am still recovering but eating healthy foods, working out to get better at the sport that I feel in love with, and of course being able to experience the life that I deserve. Weight is just a number that we all do care about, but is it really that important? As athletes we should not be worried about it. CHEERFIT has helped me with this because it has given me the workout support that I needed. The workouts are safe and enough to help me get the muscle I need for cheer. It has also given me a community I can trust and always count on when I need that extra push. This is why I want to start this campaign – this topic is not talked about and it needs to be heard. CHEERFIT will be a part of this because we love to workout and get the body we love.
Thank you to everyone that took the time to read about this topic that needs to be heard. I am always here whenever anyone needs to talk or has a question. There is a quote I got from a friend when I was going through a difficult times, “God gives us the hardest challenges because he knows we can handle them.”
– CHEERFIT Ambassador Jessica Ziolkowski
