Addison Rae has revealed she started seeing a therapist to deal with “hurtful” comments online.
The 20-year-old rose to fame on the social media app TikTok, becoming one of the most followed and top earning stars on the platform.
The dancer admitted she gets a lot of “online hate”, explaining that people leave “hurtful” comments about her body on her social media posts.
Speaking to Glamour UK, Addison said: “I am 20 and my body is constantly changing, but people have this high standard around body image and say, ‘Oh, you have to look like this to look great or to look hot or to be cool or to be pretty.'”
“For me, a lot of people have said, ‘Oh I love how comfortable she is and she doesn’t look like the beauty standard.'”
“It’s a backhanded compliment sometimes because people will be like, ‘I’m so glad she’s confident that she doesn’t look perfect.'”
“It hurts sometimes when people say that, because I think everyone’s perfect, so why is there some standard of ‘this body is the ideal body’?”
“I have thought a lot in the past year that it doesn’t really define me and I am learning to love my body and who I am, for what I am,” she said.
“I used to ask myself, ‘Why doesn’t my body look like that? Or why isn’t my hair that way? Or why is my face this way?’ Or even feature-wise, sometimes I would just really look at myself and pick myself apart for no reason.”
“There is so much going on in the world today, adding self-esteem onto that is really tough. If you can’t mentally, emotionally or physically love who you are it becomes really difficult to even be happy.”
“I started seeing a therapist, which was really helpful just to not feel so down about myself,” she shared.
“Self-worth is a big thing that I’ve been working on the past few months because it’s definitely a real struggle, and it does affect you in your daily life, not having high self-worth.”
“Therapy is a great way to work on that and it’s an outlet to speak on things that are bothering you internally.”
“Just being able to have someone to talk to has been a big thing for me and understanding that if you let people understand you a little more, then they will.”
“There’s so many times that I’ve been like, ‘This is a lot, maybe it’s mentally challenging,’ and then wanting to give up. But then I remember that I got where I am today, and that I should take every opportunity I can to just accomplish everything that I dreamed of.”
