The internet loves Jess Waterhouse (and here's why)

In that vein, we know that there's quite a lot of crossover with athletes and things like body image concerns, relationship with food and exercise, which can start to become quite pressured- Talking about sort of that sense of putting a lot of pressure on ourselves, because the personality types which find themselves in that, those arenas tend to be very goal-focused-

Yes

... very black and white in their pursuit of what they're doing, and that can start to tip over sometimes into how they're approaching movement, how they're approaching food.

Mm-hmm.

What has that journey looked like for you?

It's funny because, like, I didn't grow up with body image issues, and my relationship with food was fine, I thought.

And then once I was older, I reflected and I'm like, "Okay, I'm getting on the scales at 13 years old," like with the sports medical team around me.

We're doing skin folds, and everyone's in the change rooms watching.

Like, you get picked out, go in the middle, do your skin fold.

So you've got, like, your sh- top lifted up, and you kind of, like, measure how much fat you've got opposed to muscle in your body.

So are they using an instrument to do that?

Yes.

And they're measuring-

It's like a little-

... by, like, centimeters, inches?

Yeah, skinfold testing, so it's measuring it, like-

So invasive, Jess.

[laughs] I feel like there's a time and a place for it, potentially.

Mm.

I mean, not, hope, not in my life, but there is potentially.

But, you know, I think I was, like, 13, 14 years old, and the fact that everyone's in the room as well, like, it wasn't a private thing.

And although no one was saying it, 'cause everyone was experiencing the same thing, like, no one was laughing or anything, it was just awkward.

Like, what a weird thing to put such a young person through, you know, regardless of gender anyway.

Like, it's just a weird situation.

So I would never think anything of it, but then I think that slowly over time, little things like that was like, on the scales, and then you're getting meal plans made for you at 14.