The Venus That Shattered The Mirror

A story of overcoming and body positivity.

The story of Miren is the story of all of us, the tale of a life that all too often stops belonging to the person living it and winds up in others’ hands, subject to others’ opinions. All of us were called fat, Dumbo, boogerface, or midget when we were little, but when do these words stop being gentle joking around and become projectile weapons? When do they make us change our vision of our own bodies and our way of relating to the world?

Miren was always a happy little girl, and there was little in the world she liked more than going out to play with her friends. But one day everything changed, and her body and her relationship to it took priority over everything else. Those were hard years full of anguish and self-destruction, years when every battle seemed to lead to a new defeat. Until one day she hit bottom and her only alternative was to swim desperately toward the surface.

Today Miren looks back and recollects her darkest moments to show us that judging ourselves by our bodies alone, or empowering others to do so, isn’t an alternative. That there is no need to be ashamed and that a timely “screw you all” can save you. Because the woman writing today has not only overcome her fears, but has also taken up the cause as a sworn defender of body positivity.

We are more than a body, and loving yourself is easy if you know how.