Melanie Chisholm—also known as Mel C, or Sporty Spice—recently revealed she developed an eating disorder after being thrust into the Spice Girls spotlight. Chisholm told BBC Good Food that being photographed so frequently at such a young age led her to become insecure with her appearance. "I joined the Spice Girls when I was 20, and it was an insane time," she said in the interview. "I developed an eating disorder...I was in the spotlight, being photographed constantly, and I started to become self-conscious of my body image."
Though Chisholm's story is sad, she isn't the only celebrity to develop an eating disorder after becoming famous. Earlier this year, singer Zayn Malik spoke out about becoming anorexic during his time in boyband One Direction. And a number of other celebrities—Demi Lovato, Beverly Johnson, and Candace Cameron Bure—have revealed the same. Some of these celebrities said that at the time, their perceived their eating disorders as a means of gaining control over their hectic professional and emotional lives. But others, like Chisholm, said they saw eating methodically and restrictively as a way to fit Hollywood's mold of what they should look like.
Eating disorders—like anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa—affect at least 30 million Americans at some point in their lives. These potentially life-threatening conditions can affect someone's physical and emotional health, and can impact things like relationships and productivity. The most common eating disorder, anorexia nervosa, has the highest mortality rate of any mental health condition.
"It's sad to say, but I think it's not surprising that a lot of these young celebrities develop eating disorders," Jennifer Harriger, B.S., associate psychology professor at Pepperdine University tells SELF. "I think that it would be incredibly difficult to be in that kind of spotlight." Harriger notes that celebrities are expected to maintain a "very specific look" and that they're constantly criticized when they don't meet those expectations. Plus, these pressures are only worsened by the fact that many of these celebrities are very young, she says.
Chisholm said she became insecure and image-conscious after seeing so many pictures of herself in the media, and Harriger says the same effect could apply to anyone using social media. "Celebrities are experiencing this on a world stage," Harriger says. "But we live in a society where people are already very concerned with what others think of them." And it's easy for that desire to impress to grow in the face of social media. "I've talked with [people] who have said that if their Instagram doesn't get a certain amount of likes within a certain amount of time, they'll take it down," she says. "They post pictures and get feedback—it's not the same as a celebrity, but it's similar." And Michael Levine, Ph.D., emeritus professor of psychology at Kenyon College agrees. "You could say, 'What the hell does the plight of a Spice Girl have to do with an ordinary person?'" Levine says. "But celebrities are symbols of our culture writ very large...In many ways, they're struggling with the same pressures that [people] in our society continue to struggle with."
Why is this the case? Levine says there's a consistent element of self-presentation in both scenarios. Whereas a celebrity might have a team making sure they look their best while constantly remaining in the public eye, that responsibility falls to the individual when it comes social media. "With our phones, it's very easy to de-construct and re-construct the images we post," Levine says. "We're not just being prompted to reflect on ourselves, we're also engaged in a process of promoting perfection."
And this de-construction and re-construction Levine is talking about is both figurative and literal. While social media allows us to think about how we're presenting ourselves more than ever, technology also enables us to alter our images to present a false ideal. "It's easy for someone to be on a social media site and assume the person they're looking at is more attainable," Harriger says. "With a celebrity, it might be easy to know they've been Photoshopped. But what people don't take into account is that images of people they follow have potentially been edited, too—creating a false ideal of reality."
Levine says this focus on self-presentation can lead people to focus too much on their appearances, rather than their lived experiences. "You're encouraged to define yourself in terms of—not only how you look—but how you are seen and how you appear to others," he says. "It doesn't take long for you to become an object of your own sight or scrutiny." And this can be inhibiting. If you're a singer, it can make you feel less comfortable in your performance; if you're a party guest, it can make you feel self-conscious in the clothes you decide to wear out. "If you're always reflecting on how you appear and how you're coming across, it can disrupt the flow of your performance," Levine says. "You begin to experience your body as others see it and perceive it—as opposed to inhabiting it from the inside...That process of self-scrutiny is, in some ways, normal. At the same time, it can also be potentially disruptive and harmful."
This isn't to say that social media is totally harmful—or that everyone should delete their Instagrams immediately. But if you find yourself obsessively editing photos, monitoring the responses your posts get, and feeling negatively after visiting social media sites, you might want to step back and reevaluate your relationship with the platforms. (If interested, you should check out our story on social media cleanses here.) And if you feel fine about your level of social media engagement as is, don't worry about it. Using Instagram isn't wrong; it doesn't mean you'll definitely feel bad about your appearance, and it's nothing to be afraid of. But as Harriger and Levine noted, it can be problematic for some. And if it is for you, there's no need to feel ashamed.
If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, you can contact a National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) network member or consult some of the other resources on their website.
Related:
- Does Quitting Social Media Actually Do Anything For Your Mental Health?
- Congress Just Passed The First Ever Eating Disorder Legislation
- 4 Photos That Show How Social Media Can Warp Our Sense Of Self
Also: What Everyone Gets Wrong About Eating Disorders (SELF)
