Eating disorders have increasingly become recognized as a class of psychiatric disorders that pose serious risks to individuals. According to the American Psychiatry Association (APA), eating disorders affect 5% of the population, most often occurring in women from ages 12-35. Author Nikita Gill published a collection of poems “These Are the Words: Fearless Verse to Find Your Voice”, in an attempt to reach teenagers who are struggling with growing up and finding themselves in the big world. 

Among her many empowering pieces, Nikita addresses the issue of eating disorders through her poem “What I Weigh”. Here, she highlights that people are so much more than their weight, and that the number on a scale is not in any way a valid measure of self-worth. 

I weigh the sea, 

I weigh the storm,

I weigh a thousand stories long.

I weigh my mother’s fortitude and my father’s eyes, 

I weigh the way they look at me with pride,

I weigh strength and fearless and the warrior in me.

I weigh all the pain and trauma that made me see

that I have more galaxies inside me than tragedies.

We all weigh joys and darkness and goodness and sin;

you see, we are infinite within this skin we are in.

So when you are asked what you weigh

you don’t need to look down at any scale.

Instead simply tell the truth:

tell everyone how you

weigh whole universes

and storms and scars and stories too.

One eating disorder that can be implied in this poem is anorexia nervosa, which is identified by self-starvation and weight loss due to the psychological fear of becoming fat. The APA states that anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness after opioid use disorder. In her poem, Nikita shows how one’s accomplishments, struggles, and life stories are what actually make up a person, and that looking beyond the scale can give victims of eating disorders a sense of comfort and value. Through her inspiring words, Nikita emphasizes the right and freedom for everyone to take up space in the world, and the pride that comes with weighing “whole universes”. Her work continues to help adolescents navigate through change and learn to feel comfortable in their bodies, regardless of what the meaningless numbers on a scale may be.

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