Fuck that shit. Anna is a walking billboard and has deluded young women into thinking fat is healthy at absolute best and is helping actively ruin their health at worst. Nah, Anna ain't some blameless fool. She knows what she's doing deep down is bad but like any addict she'd rather kill herself than admit it.
I don't think Anna is or was a primary player in the HAES movement, which has largely been discredited and lost most of it's steam anyway. If anything, she is pushing the narrative that she's fat and
unhealthy, but attributes it to a genetic disorder, Hashimoto's disease, lipedema, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, fibrosis -- pretty much everything except her gluttony and other poor lifestyle choices.
She initially gained huge popularity on TikTok, whose primary demographic is 18-34 year olds. People liked seeing this super morbidly obese woman dancing, exercising in the gym, and strutting around unabashedly in tight skimpy clothes and colorful bikinis. She was a novelty act promoting body positivity and self-acceptance, not some Pied Piper leading hordes of obese young women down the path to ruinous health.
In fact, she actually started as a weight-loss blogger. In one of her early blogs she specifically said, "Being obese should not be advocated as a healthy lifestyle," and set out to lose 100 pounds. She has repeatedly pursued weight loss over the years, something the HAES advocates abhor, and for which they have soundly criticized her.
At nearly 41 years old, she doesn't seem to generate as much interest among young women anymore, despite dressing like JoJo Siwa and gallivanting in public in onesie pajamas. She has over 2 million subscribers on her YouTube channel, but she no longer posts there, and has disabled the comment sections on all of them. She still posts YouTube shorts, but is routinely dragged in the comments. Her TikToks and Instagram posts are still doing well.
I understand why people dislike Anna, though. She's loud, obnoxious, spoiled, and entitled. She has been disingenuous about several things, including the size clothes she wears and the extent to which she exercises. She skeevily failed to disclose her partnership with Wegovy, and claimed her weight loss was due solely to lifestyle changes. However, I don't think she encourages obesity. On the contrary, she has frequently and actively engaged in schemes to lose weight, not gain it.
Is she blameless when it comes to the topic of fat acceptance? Idk, but the person she is harming the most with these unnecessary lipedema treatments and surgeries is herself. Most people on social media seem to recognize that, and are not rushing out to emulate her. Whether Anna herself, deep down inside, realizes the folly of these surgeries is debatable. I don't think so, but I respect the fact that YMMV.
