Katie H. Willcox - Healthy Is the New Skinny

Praise for

HEALTHY IS THE NEW SKINNY

Katie Willcoxs personality and her passion for healthy body image resonate throughout this entire book. Her message is both powerful and relatable. I feel that Healthy Is the New Skinny can be every girls go-to guide for empowerment and body positivity!

Robyn Lawley, international supermodel, designer, and author of Robyn Lawley Eats

A lively and useful guide to understanding and overcoming the destructive messages of the beauty ideal.Katie Willcoxshares her journey with wisdom, insight, and humor, encouraging us to love our bodies and reclaim our powernot just to improve our own lives but also, more importantly, to change the world.

Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D., activist, speaker, creator of the film series Killing Us Softly: Advertisings Image of Women, and author of Cant Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel

Katie Willcoxis such a positive voice for balance, wellness, and radiant self-confidence in the online world and modeling industry. Now, with this book, I am thrilled that she will be able to reach even more people with her message. (YES for girl gangs!) I can absolutely relate to the struggle to find inner confidence that Katie writes so thoughtfully aboutand, man, all I can say is that once you do find it, incredible things happen! Katie tells her story with such beauty and eloquence that, after reading this book, I feel like we are the best of friends.

Jordan Younger, founder of The Balanced Blonde and author of Breaking Vegan

Katie Willcoxs altruistic personality and first-hand experience in the modeling industry come through in this book to cultivate a welcoming, positive, and insightful environment for women of all ages to feel empowered.

John Edward, psychic medium, author, and host of Crossing Over with John Edward and Evolve with John Edward

HAY HOUSE TITLES OF RELATED INTEREST

YOU CAN HEAL YOUR LIFE, the movie, starring Louise Hay & Friends

(available as a 1-DVD program and an expanded 2-DVD set)

Watch the trailer at: www.LouiseHayMovie.com

THE SHIFT, the movie, starring Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

(available as a 1-DVD program and an expanded 2-DVD set)

Watch the trailer at: www.DyerMovie.com

LET IT OUT: A Journey Through Journaling, by Katie Dalebout

MAKING LIFE EASY: A Simple Guide to a Divinely Inspired Life,

by Christiane Northrup, M.D.

RADICAL SELF-LOVE: A Guide to Loving Yourself

and Living Your Dreams, by Gala Darling

REVEAL: A Sacred Manual for Getting Spiritually Naked,

by Meggan Watterson

RISE SISTER RISE: A Guide to Unleashing the Wise,

Wild Woman Within, by Rebecca Campbell

All of the above are available at your

local bookstore, or may be ordered by visiting:

Hay House USA: www.hayhouse.com

Hay House Australia: www.hayhouse.com.au

Hay House UK: www.hayhouse.co.uk

Hay House South Africa: www.hayhouse.co.za

Hay House India: www.hayhouse.co.in

Copyright 2017 by Katie H. Willcox

Published and distributed in the United States by: Hay House, Inc.: www.hayhouse.com Published and distributed in Australia by: Hay House Australia Pty. Ltd.: www.hayhouse.com.au Published and distributed in the United Kingdom by: Hay House UK, Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.uk Published and distributed in the Republic of South Africa by: Hay House SA (Pty), Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.za Distributed in Canada by: Raincoast Books: www.raincoast.com Published in India by: Hay House Publishers India: www.hayhouse.co.in

Editor: Brookes Nohlgren, www.booksbybrookes.com

Project editor: Nicolette Salamanca Young

Cover design: Jessica Brittell

Interior design: Pamela Homan

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise be copied for public or private useother than for fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviewswithout prior written permission of the publisher.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Willcox, Katie H., date, author.

Title: Healthy is the new skinny : your guide to self-love in a picture perfect world / Katie H. Willcox.

Description: 1st edition. | Carlsbad, California : Hay House, Inc., [2017]

Identifiers: LCCN 2016037602 | ISBN 9781401947217 (tradepaper : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Body image in women. | Self-acceptance. | Self-esteem.

Classification: LCC BF697.5.B63 W5495 2017 | DDC 306.4/613--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016037602

ISBN: 978-1-4019-4721-7

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

1st edition, January 2017

Printed in the United States of America

THIS BOOK IS

DEDICATED TO MY MOTHER,

JANICE WHITE, AND TO MY HUSBAND,

BRADFORD WILLCOX; OUR BABY GIRL, TRUE;

AND OUR PIT BULL, ATHENA. TOGETHER, AS

A FAMILY, WE WILL BREAK THE GENERATIONAL

MESSAGING THAT TELLS LITTLE GIRLS THEY ARE NOT

GOOD ENOUGH. INSTEAD, WE WILL RAISE TRUE

IN AN ENVIRONM ENT THAT PROTECTS AND

SUPPORTS HER UNIQUE SENSE OF

SELF, WHICH WILL ALWAYS BE

LOVED AND ACCEPTED.

Contents

I know what you might be thinking... Oh, another book by a model telling me to love myself exactly as I am. Easy for her to say! Im sure its easy to feel beautiful inside when youre also beautiful on the outside! And Im not saying your eye roll isnt justified. That is the world we live in. A world where looks are everything, and we are judged and valued based on how closely we match our societys beauty ideal.

Well, Id like to show you where society has gone wrong, how we have bought into a collective belief that is astonishingly untrue, how it is possible to love yourselftrulyexactly as you are right now, and why that is actually the best possible thing you could do... for yourself and for the world.

Hear me out. I promise not to patronize you or tell you anything that I dont believe is 100 percent true. I have been on both sides of the beauty fence. Over the course of my 30 short years, I have both worked as a professional model and been the exact opposite of our cultures ideal of what is beautiful. I, too, have struggled with my weight. I have been on the seesaw of gaining and shedding dozens and dozens of pounds. As I describe it, I have been the big girl in a skinny world, feeling like I didnt and never would fit in.

Then I had a powerful realization: I was miserable no matter which end of the weight spectrum I was on. My self-loathing didnt change with my weight or how pretty society thought I was, so my looks werent the source of happiness and self-worth that I had believed them to be. But if it wasnt my looks, then what was it? And, equally important, how had I come to invest so much of myself in a belief that was so untrue? How had I gotten so far off track?