33. Jessica, 38, comedian

“My dad’s only love language is food. During my childhood, every difficult emotion or conversation was dealt with by giving me food, and my only option was to receive it. Unfortunately, he was simultaneously obsessed with how much he hated fatness. So I grew up with this impossible dichotomy of being constantly fed beyond fullness, but not being allowed to physically show it. So, from the age of nine, I started dieting. Grapefruits, Atkins, the lot. It wasn’t until I hit my 30s that I realised the cycle of restriction followed by inevitable failure and bingeing was, in itself, disordered eating. I just thought it was the way women were supposed to live; that we were doomed to say “I’ll be happy when I’m thinner” forever. But we’re not designed, bodily or psychologically, to stay hungry all the time, it’s just not sustainable. It’s a tough thing to unlearn and it will take more than one generation, but my god, it will be worth it.”

“I just want to own a body and it be the least interesting thing about me”