Forget 'SkinnyTok.' This famous model has a bold guide for teens. Clare Mulroy, USA TODAYAugust 26, 2025 at 5:02 AM Before the digital age, they were a hallmark of adolescence – brightly colored magazines with spunky names, block lettering, glossy images and quizzes to tell you whether your crush wa...
- - Forget 'SkinnyTok.' This famous model has a bold guide for teens.
Clare Mulroy, USA TODAYAugust 26, 2025 at 5:02 AM
Before the digital age, they were a hallmark of adolescence – brightly colored magazines with spunky names, block lettering, glossy images and quizzes to tell you whether your crush was into you.
While teen magazines are a thing of the past, polished images and guides like the "Sephora kid" get-ready-with-me videos still abound on platforms like TikTok.
Enter supermodel Tess Holliday, creator of one of the first viral body positivity movements, Eff Your Beauty Standards.
In her new young adult book, "Take Up Space Y'all" (out now from Running Press Kids), has all the quizzes and confidence tips of a teen magazine but none of the cringey crush advice or subliminal body shaming. Her book deals with topics like eating disorders, body image and imposter syndrome, and fact checks wellness culture with expert psychologists and specialists. It calls out unrealistic expectations from the industry that Holliday made her name in.
Call it a teen magazine that's been through therapy.
"I was heavily inspired by 'Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul' because that was my Bible growing up," Holliday says. Of her book, she says, "It's meant to be battered and thrown around, and that's why we wanted it to be a soft copy. … I would have thrown this in my backpack, disappeared into the woods with my Walkman and my snacks and I would have been gone all day."
Tess Holliday is a plus-size model known for her viral body positivity movement, "Eff Your Beauty Standards."Social media makes it hard for teens to 'create and cultivate a true sense of self'
Cowritten with young adult author Kelly Coon, Holliday wanted to write a book that felt like something she needed when she was younger. Holliday was heavily bullied because her mom was disabled and because of her weight, and ended up dropping out of high school.
Now as a mom herself, Holliday worries how social media could exacerbate bullying and self esteem issues. In "Take Up Space, Y'All," Holliday includes thoughtful discussion questions about the way we see bodies, food and filters online, while also highlighting the positive aspects of social media. She has tips for "protecting your mental health" online and practical offline activities.
"This really helped heal, I think, a part of myself that I didn't know needed healing," Holliday says. "I just turned 40, so this book kind of was a love letter, really, to that part of myself that never felt good enough and was afraid to take up space."
Social media has a way of making clones of us – suddenly everyone on your feed has a coveted Labubu, or a Stanley cup, or is trying a wacky viral skincare routine. To combat this, a central thesis of Holliday's book is encouraging individuality and celebrating difference.
"Take Up Space Y'all" by Tess Holliday is a guidebook for teens and tweens cultivating a strong sense of self.Tess Holliday's book for teens tackles eating disorders, body image
More than any other shopping trend, what worries Holliday is the resurgence of trends that promote eating disorders and unrealistic body standards. #SkinnyTok may be banned, but its dangerous influence persists. Kim Kardashian's Skims is selling face slimming wraps. We're in an era of Ozempic weight loss transformations and girl dinners and the return of the ultra-thin body standards.
Experts say these unrealistic beauty standards can impact mental and physical health, particularly in the form of eating disorders. Social media and isolation have contributed to a large increase in youth eating disorders since the pandemic, and food, nutrition and weight content on TikTok can perpetuate toxic diet culture, USA TODAY previously reported.
For Holliday, it's personal.
She started using the hashtag #effyourbeautystandards in 2013, and it quickly became a viral body positivity movement. In 2021, Holliday took to Twitter to share that she was in recovery from anorexia. When she was diagnosed, she felt validated but also angry, ashamed and confused, she says. It felt like a relief to tell the world. But the backlash was swift and brutal. Social media users slammed Holliday and claimed she was faking her eating disorder because of her weight.
Anorexia can occur in bodies of all shapes and sizes. Atypical anorexia, which Holliday has, specifically refers to people who "weigh in the 'normal' range or live in larger bodies," according to the Eating Recovery Center. In the years since Holliday's post, there's been a wider understanding of that.
"I definitely look back at that time in my life with a lot of mixed feelings," Holliday says. "Now that I've had time to sit with it and look back, I understand that it really got a conversation started around why inclusivity and diversity is so important. Because if I knew that someone that looked like me could be struggling and dealing with my particular form of an eating disorder, perhaps I would have been able to get help and care sooner."
In a world where teens may find themselves spiraling down rabbit holes of "SkinnyTok" posts, Holliday wants them to know it's OK to ask for help. More importantly, she wants them to know how to.
Her book includes mantras ("I deserve to feed myself," she encourages repeating, "I trust myself. I can take care of my body.") and what to do if you have a friend who you suspect may suffer from disordered eating.
She also wants tweens and teens to trust themselves – not the labels or boxes that other people ascribe to them. Holliday experienced that in 2021, when social media users told her she couldn't possibly be anorexic. And when she was younger, Holliday struggled with how she felt about the word "fat." It was often weaponized against her, but she became proud to use it.
"I think it scared a lot of people, and they'd be like, 'No, no, you're not fat. ... And I would say, 'Yeah, I am fat, but I'm also witty and beautiful,'" Holliday says.
"I feel like we've lost the plot sometimes as a society. If (sculpting masks) can exist, then I should be able to call myself fat and exist. I think, to me, it's never been that big of a deal. My body has always been a bigger deal, pun intended, to everyone else than myself."
Clare Mulroy is USA TODAY's Books Reporter, where she covers buzzy releases, chats with authors and dives into the culture of reading. Find her on Instagram, subscribe to our weekly Books newsletter or tell her what you're reading at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Plus-sized model Tess Holliday wants more for teens than 'SkinnyTok'
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