I'm a girl who has struggled with weight practically all her life. When I was six years old, I gradually became overweight. It's been the hardest obstacle of my life. My childhood years were the worst because children would be cruel and ridicule me a lot because of my appearance. Whenever someone made fun of me, I usually went home crying and eating food to suppress my feelings.

That eventually led to my bad eating habits. I'm sixteen years old now and I thought things would be better now that I understand more about dieting, but it isn't ... my entire life has been a diet. Whenever I go to the mall with my friends, we usually eat there, and I can only imagine how it would feel to eat anything I wanted without worrying about it. I'm sure slender people are conscious of their weight too, but they seem to be more accepted in our society than overweight people are.

I've experienced a lot of discrimination because of my overweight appearance, but I don't get depressed as much as I did when I was a child.

I hope people who judge people by their looks realize that it makes no difference if you're big on the outside. What matters is how big your heart is on the inside. n