Yep, you read that title right. Pinterest has declared officially to ban all weight loss ads everywhere on their app and website. While this does still allow people to create weight loss pins and boards, it removes the intention from Pinterest’s creators. 

Being a user of Pinterest, I have frequently been bothered by ads that talk about weight loss, such as exercises to lose weight, miles you need to walk to burn off leg fat, and more obnoxious advertisements. This is one small step in beating diet culture and one large step for the social media community. Social media is frequently known to broadcast irrational beauty standards. Feel free to read more about this in some of my past articles. 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health issues have been rising everywhere, from depression to anxiety, ADHD, bipolar, schizophrenia, eating disorders, and more. For some people who already had baseline symptoms of these mental illnesses, the pandemic has made their conditions worse. With everybody stuck inside their homes, a lot of people go to social media. I, myself, spent too much time obsessing over the imperfections that I had and wanting to go along with this influence. Even though it is a small step, Pinterest has shown the world that we can be our best selves, without having ads trying to promote eating disorders. 

We don’t know what is yet to come in the future but keep spreading awareness. Maybe with enough influence, more social media platforms will be able to shut down diet culture promotion to take a step toward intuitive eating. 

Be sure to leave a comment and share this article with others. This is your daily reminder to take care of yourself and others. Be light, be love, be kind, and always remember you don’t need to change yourself for anybody.

<3 Carissa