07/24/2026
Late night thoughts….I really don’t post all that often, but every once in a while something weighs heavily on my heart, that I feel the need to share it.
As a teen life coach, I have the privilege of sitting with teenagers every single week. I hear their thoughts, their worries, their insecurities, and the things they don’t always feel comfortable sharing with parents, friends or saying out loud. Over the years, I’ve started noticing certain patterns, and lately there’s been one that I just can’t seem to shake.
Before anyone misunderstands where I’m coming from, this isn’t a post criticizing Ozempic, GLP-1 medications, peptides, or anyone who has chosen to use them. I know these medications have been life-changing for many people, and for some they’re an important part of improving their health.
Truthfully, this isn’t really about medications at all.It’s about something much bigger. It’s about the culture we’ve created around weight, food, and body image.
It’s about how often we, as adults, talk about dieting, calories, carbs, protein, losing weight, gaining weight, “being good,” “cheating,” getting back on track, wanting to lose “just another five pounds,” hating our thighs, our stomachs, our love handles, or commenting on someone else’s body. These conversations have become so normal that most of us don’t even realize how often we’re having them.
But let me tell you…our children do.
The girls in my office aren’t talking about medications or the latest weight-loss trend. They’re talking about what all of this is making them think and feel about themselves. They are talking about their parents or their family members, even their teachers.
I’ve had conversations with girls who have wondered why their moms wanted to lose more weight when they already thought they were soo beautiful. Other kids have shared that it feels like everywhere they look, women are becoming smaller and tinier, and it’s makes them look at their own bodies in ways they never used to. Some have quietly wondered if being thin is simply what’s expected of them as they grow up, and they tell me how much anxiety it cause them and how exhausting that feels.
Sometimes they come right out and say it, other times they don’t, Instead, I see it in the way they compare themselves to everyone around them. The way they begin criticizing parts of their bodies that they had never really noticed before. How they suddenly start mentioning that they feel guilty after eating, become afraid of certain foods that might “make them fat,” or believe they have to earn dessert or somehow make up for what they ate.
Those are the conversations that stay with me…Sitting across from these girls, listening to them pour their hearts out, and realizing how much they’re trying to make sense of the messages they’re hearing from the world around them…it truly breaks my heart.
As adults, we understand there can be many different reasons why someone wants or needs to lose weight. We understand diabetes, obesity, menopause, health concerns, confidence, and personal choices.
But kids, they don’t. They simply watch….
They notice who gets complimented after losing weight. They notice Mom celebrating another pound lost or saying she has to go for a run to “burn off” what she ate. They notice when dessert comes with guilt or privilege, instead of enjoyment or normalcy. They notice when weight loss or muscle gain occurs rapidly, when every workout seems to be about making up for food instead of feeling healthier and stronger, or when Mom or Dad steps on the scale every morning, pulls at their clothes in the mirror, or criticizes their own body.
They hear conversations that constantly circle back to calories, carbs, weight, or what someone “shouldn’t” be eating. They notice when parents repeatedly comment on what their children are eating or how much they’re eating.
Children and teens don’t always understand the reasons behind our choices, but they absorb the messages anyway. Over time, those messages quietly become the BELIEFS they carry about themselves.
Please know I’m not writing this from a place of judgment. I’m certainly not writing it because I think I’m perfect. I’ve caught myself saying things I wish I hadn’t…I’ve caught myself realizing I could have handled something differently. None of us gets this perfectly right and i certainly am no angel by any stretch of the means.
I am an empowered woman and I want women to feel healthy. I want moms to feel confident. I want people to make the decisions that are best for their own bodies and their own health.
But at the same time, I also can’t help but ask what I believe is the bigger question… What are our children learning while they’re watching us??
If a little girl already thought her mom was beautiful, but watches her spend so much time trying to become smaller, what story does she quietly begin telling herself about her own body??
If conversations about food and weight become the background noise of everyday life, what kind of relationship with food are we helping to create for the next generation?
As a teen coach, I can tell you that body image struggles, comparison, perfectionism, anxiety around food, and eating disorders are becoming more and more common. Do I believe this is the only reason? Of course not.
But I do believe it’s one piece of a much bigger picture, and one that’s worth paying attention to.
Maybe our children don’t need to hear us talking so much about calories, carbs, shots. and watching us shrink and getting smaller. Maybe they need to hear us talking more about strength, health, balance, gratitude, having energy, enjoying birthday cake without guilt, and moving our bodies because we appreciate them, not because we’re trying to earn our food or punish ourselves.
Maybe they need to see us nourishing our bodies instead of constantly criticizing them. Maybe they need to grow up believing that taking care of yourself comes from self-respect, not from believing you’re never enough.
If I’m being completely honest, I wish every parent could spend just one day sitting in my office listening to the conversations I hear. I truly believe we’d all walk away a little more aware of how deeply our children are affected by the world around them…and by us.
Our children are always listening, and they’re always watching. Sometimes the messages we never intended to send become the very ones they carry with them for years. I’ve seen that firsthand, and it’s one of the reasons I felt compelled to write this today.
I’m not sharing this to make anyone feel guilty. I’m sharing it because I care deeply about this next generation and because I believe awareness is where change begins.
If this post encourages even one parent to pause before criticizing their own body, one family to have fewer conversations centered around weight, or one little girl to grow up believing she’s already enough, then every word was worth writing.
Our children are learning how to see themselves, by watching how we see ourselves. And to me…that’s a conversation we can’t afford not to have.🤷♀️ I’m always cheering for every parent, bit I’ll always be Team Kid. ♥️
