Another day, another instance of a woman on social media being attacked by trolls on social media. Today's target? Love Island's Amy Hart. This honestly has to stop.
At the beginning of the week, Amy - who was on last year's must-watch series - posted a before-and-after image of herself. The 'after' picture was taken following a seven day visit to a Portuguese juice retreat, which she said she undertook to 'overcome [her] social anxiety.' Weight loss, she explained, was not her target, but she did announce that she had lost more than four pounds in just a week away.
Amy looked great before, and looks great now. And yet, some thought it was a good idea to state that she looked 'sickly' and 'ill.' She has already hit back at the cruel jibes.
'Some of the comments on my post about what a disgrace I am for sharing the day one and day seven pics...' she wrote on Instagram. 'I went on holiday to a health retreat and have had thousands of messages with questions and encouragement, asking to follow my journey. It’s not a dramatic weight loss, it’s not like I’ve lost 2 stone in 7 days or something ridiculous like that. I’m not telling people to go and take weight loss shots or live on 3 cuppa-soups a day. It’s a one week reset. As you’ll see in the caption, the actual juicing aspect was very far down the list for me and the weight loss ever further down. My skin is glowing, I’m less bloated, I toned up through lots of fun and exercise classes with friends. I had the best time out there so wanted to share.'
Amy has spoken out about trolls many times before, not least to the Grazia Life Advice podcast. Give it a listen here.
Her attitude is to be applauded. She has taken some time away, acknowledged her own issues with social anxiety and found a way to attempt to tackle them, and informed her followers of her journey with honesty and visibility.
She has made no false claims of drastic weight loss, has not said that she - or anyone else - needs to slim down. In short, she has been herself. Challenging her, criticising her, tearing her down, achieves nothing but cruelty.
Will this ever end? Perhaps, with people like Amy continuing to do their best to defeat negative thinking on social media, we might see a day - just one day - where stories like this don't occur. Fingers crossed.
READ MORE:Amy Hart: 'People Don't Always Want To Be My Friend'