Eiza González has opened up about a lifelong and deeply personal struggle with body image.
She shared what she describes as her “complicated” relationship with her own body, one that began in childhood and was made worse by early fame.
The Mexican actress, 36, posted a candid message on Instagram on Wednesday, 25th February, accompanied by a carousel of photos spanning her younger years through to the present day.
The post, timed to coincide with National Eating Disorder Association-supported awareness week, was honest, detailed, and clearly heartfelt.
González started with the loss of her father, who died in a motorcycle accident when she was just 12 years old.
“Most of my life my relationship with my body has been complicated. It began at a young age, after my father’s sudden death, when I coped with depression by eating compulsively, trying to soothe pain I hadn’t processed,” she wrote.
By 13, she had gained 30 pounds in a short space of time, navigating “grief, puberty, and confusion all at once.”
Then came the spotlight, and with it a different kind of pressure.
At 15, González landed the lead role in Nickelodeon Latin America’s Sueña conmigo, a show that quickly put her in front of audiences across the region.
“Every image was dissected, every detail criticized, and everyone seemed to have an opinion about my body, who I was, and who I should be,” she wrote.
The scrutiny, she reflected, caused “deep self-dysmorphia” that “sent me down a painful path.”
She became obsessed with the scales, measuring her self-worth in “pounds” and asking herself whether losing more weight would make others, or herself, like her more.
The approval she was chasing never came.
Instead, she wrote, the opinions only multiplied. What she mistook for strength, reshaping herself to fit what others wanted, left her feeling emptier than before.
But her post wasn’t one of defeat.
Alongside photos of her younger self, González shared photos of herself today, strong and training in the gym, and the contrast was clearly intentional.
“The one thing I learned from all this is how powerful the mind can be and how much we can change when we set our will to it. The same energy you put into shrinking yourself, or conforming into the standard can be used to build what you really dream to be,” she wrote.
She ended with both vulnerability and encouragement.
“I’ve become deeply committed to giving my body love, fueling it with kindness, care, and respect so it can feel happy and fulfilled. I’m proud of where I am and of the hard work it’s taken to break old patterns,” she concluded.
“I hope anyone reading this knows that choosing yourself and honouring your body for the right reasons is far more meaningful than trying to be liked by others even ourselves sometimes. I don’t like to pretend the journey is over, it’s hard, complex. But NEVER too late.”
