Influencer Riley Hemson reveals she vowed to lose weight at 10
A Gold Coast influencer has revealed the sad New Year’s resolution she made when she was just ten years old.
Riley Hemson was just 10 years old when she first made a New Year’s resolution to lose weight.
The body positive influencer, based on Queensland’s Gold Coast, shared the sad resolution as she explained that in the years since then she has learned to embrace her body.
“I remember being 10 years old and that was my goal for the year ahead. I was a confident, active, happy 10-year-old, but this pressure to be thinner was always there,” she told 9 Honey.
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“I would feel like I had failed when my unrealistic goals of going on a run at 5am didn’t work out the way I had planned.”
She said it was the same routine every year, where she would set unrealistic fitness or weight loss goals and then tell herself she’d “start tomorrow” when she didn’t meet them.
Riley said when it comes to this time of year, it is almost impossible to escape conversations regarding bodies and weight.
She said it’s a time of year she has to push herself not to step on the scales and remind herself she is more than the number that appears.
Six years ago, Riley joined Instagram with a private page documenting her fitness and weight-loss journey.
However, as time went on, Riley realised that health and the way your body looked didn’t necessarily correlate.
She said as a society we’re sold the idea that being thin means you’ll be happy – but after years of working on her own self image, she discovered that wasn’t always the case.
Riley has since made her Instagram page public and boasts 468,000 followers.
She said surrounding herself with people who speak positively about their bodies is “contagious” and while there are some days she feels pressure to change the way her body looks, she tells her followers it’s a normal feeling.
For 2023, she encourages people to pick resolutions that matter, as it’s not worth spending your life hating your body.
“Focus on building habits that make you feel your best – water intake, daily skin care routine, daily walk, FaceTime a friend. Nourish your body and be kind to yourself every day,” she said.