Jesy Nelson shares sadness as she recalls 'starving' herself to please people

Jesy Nelson looked back at one of the lowest points in her life when she was still with Little Mix in a throwback photo shared on social media on Wednesday.

The singer shared an emotional-looking photo on Instagram that showed her lying on the floor next to a treadmill with her hand over her eyes. Her ribs are visible in the cycling shorts and cropped top she wore.

Nelson said the picture popped up on her feed and it made her "feel so sad" because she vividly remembers when it was taken. She said it was on the day she yearned to be skinny so people would stop bullying her about her weight.

"I remember going to the gym with my manager and I stood in the mirror and I said, 'god I'm so fat I just want my legs to be like this' and I pulled my skin around to try and create a thigh gap because I genuinely believed that being skinny would make me happier," she wrote.

The 29-year-old English star said that even though she "got to a size 8 from starving" herself, she still was not happy. She revealed that she mentally bullied herself every day just "to try to please other people." Nelson shared that it took her ten years to realise "that I'm the only person I need to please."

"As humans we find it so easy to pay other people compliments but yet we find it so hard to be kind to ourselves because it's so much easier to pick ourselves apart than to find the things we love about ourselves. So if you're someone who is feeling like I was, please don't waste years of you're life seeking approval from others, seek approval from yourself," she advised and reminded people to be their "number one fan" since they are "in control" of their happiness and that being unique in itself is already "pretty f**king powerful."

Nelson previously shared in her BBC Three documentary "Odd One Out" that she tried to kill herself because of the bullying. She was criticised for being fat and ugly and told by online trolls that she did not deserve to be with Little Mix because of her looks. She left the group in December 2020 after nine years together so she can focus on her mental health.