Youth Radio’s Riley Lockett says he’s always been skinny, and he wishes the world could just get over it already.
Here’s what I hear from everyone in my family: “Why you so skinny?” “Boy, you thin!” “Get some meat on your bones.”
I get it from my friends, too. One time I was sitting having school lunch, and when I took off my coat, my friends acted like I opened the Ark of the Covenant. “Whoa!” they asked. “Do you wear your jacket all the time to hide how thin you are?” It’s like people can’t keep their opinions to themselves.
I don’t go up to other people and say, “Geez, you look like you could lose a few pounds.” Because that would be insensitive. That would be rude.
I’m 5’8” and I weigh 125 pounds. And everyone says I look like Steve Urkel. I know I’m skinny. In a swimming suit, you can clearly see my ribs, and my butt is so boney that it almost always hurts to sit. Yet my doctor says I’m healthy, and this may come as a shock: I’m also pretty comfortable with my body.