- Madalin Giorgetta, 35, from Australia, had over a million followers
- But she has now revealed how the attention left her ‘fixated’ on her appearance
- She said she was often left feeling like she ‘wasn’t good enough’
A former fitness influencer has revealed how social media fame ‘ruined her mental health’ and left her ‘obsessed’ with getting likes for ‘validation.’
Madalin Giorgetta, 35, from Australia, spent years ‘eating crap’ and avoiding the gym – but she decided to turn her life around in 2016.
She soon fell in love with exercising and started documenting her journey online, and after one of her Instagram posts highlighting her body transformation went viral, her account ‘exploded.’
Within one year, Madalin had over a million followers, and she decided to quit her job to focus on being a fitness influencer full-time.
But the social media sensation has now spoken out about how the attention left her ‘fixated’ on her appearance and often feeling like she ‘wasn’t good enough.’
She told Business Insider recently that she ultimately decided to leave her ‘fitness empire’ behind after realizing that it was not only affecting her own body image, but thousands of others’ too.
‘I used to get 60,000 likes on a bikini photo, be a GymShark athlete, and sell my own workout program,’ she said.
‘But once I realized I was endorsing harmful ideas about body image, I shifted gears.
‘Now I get 500 likes on a graphic I made about nutrition science, and I’m just so happy someone is liking my content even though it doesn’t have my body in it.’
Madalin explained to the publication that her social media stardom happened accidentally.
‘[Personal trainer Kayla Itsines] reposted a before-and-after photo I had uploaded, and I gained about 10,000 followers overnight,’ she revealed.
‘I didn’t actually have that much fitness experience, but people were asking me for advice, and I was like, “Oh, I’m a fitness person now.”‘
At the time, she had created her own exercise program dedicated to ‘building muscle’ by combining the ‘best techniques,’ and after her account began to gain traction, she started selling the ‘guide’ online.
‘It just exploded. It became very big,’ she continued. ‘Then I started working on my own fitness app, working with brands, and gaining more and more followers.’
But as someone who has ‘always been very sensitive to people’s criticisms,’ she admitted that the immense pressure began to negatively impact her.
‘I became obsessed with everything, from engagement on my posts to the number of guides I was selling to how my body looked in a photo,’ she confessed.
She said she also became ‘fixated’ on her appearance, which left her ‘constantly’ looking at herself in the mirror and taking selfies.
‘My body was my business card, and I was very aware that if it looked a certain way, I could get a lot more likes, sell more products, and make more money,’ she added.
‘I had to pose in a certain style, have abs, make sure I didn’t eat before I worked out, and have a tan, lashes, Botox, and filler all over my face.
‘I was super successful, and people wanted to look like me, but I never felt good about how I looked.
‘My phone was filled with rows of selfies of me trying to get the best angle. There was always someone who was more toned, prettier, or doing better financially, and that made me feel like I wasn’t good enough. It ruined my mental health.’
Madalin said she began to reflect on the ‘underlying message’ that she was sending to others in 2019, and realized it was one she was not proud of.
After that, she stopped promoting brands that didn’t align with her ethics – despite losing thousands of dollars on sponsorship deals – and started ‘centering her content on anti-diet culture.’
But the change resulted in her receiving ‘pretty brutal backlash.’
‘Every post I did would get lots of hate comments, and I lost a lot of followers and friends in the industry, which made me really sad,’ she shared.
‘Either people weren’t following me for that type of content, or they felt like I was shaming them because I was saying things like, “Ditch your fitness app.”‘
Madalin went on to get her bachelor’s degree in nutrition, and she now works as a ‘functional nutritionist.’
She stopped going to the gym because she said ‘couldn’t look at herself in the mirror without thinking, “You look so bad,”‘ but recently returned for the first time in five years.
‘I still have a big following on Instagram, but I wouldn’t consider myself an influencer because I very rarely work with brands,’ she concluded.
‘I use it as a way to get clients, connect with my community, and share educational content about nutrition and fitness.
‘I’m proud of my decision, and I feel comfortable with who I am and what I’ve done. My relationships with myself, my body, my partner, and my friends improved too.
‘I just wish that Madalin back then hadn’t cared so much about what people thought.’
