‘Teen Mom 2’ Star Leah Messer Responds To Bikini Body Criticism About Instagram Picture

“Teen Mom 2” star Leah Messer doesn’t have an eating disorder. Or at least that's what the MTV reality star said when she was accused of having an eating disorder by some internet users after she showed off her slender bikini body on Instagram Monday.

She released an official statement to Refinery29 where she said a woman’s beauty is more than skin deep. “First and foremost, there is much more to women than our bodies,” Messer said Tuesday. “Yet many women seem to continually judge others, not by their character, but by their bodies.”

The mother-of-three denied she starved herself. “There are many more important issues going on in the world today than whether or not I had enough to eat for breakfast,” she said. “(Side note: I had plenty).”

Even though she was scrutinized, Messer didn’t let the naysayers bring her down. “We should be focused on spreading love and kindness instead of mean-spirited bullying. Thankfully I am in a beautiful place in my life raising three wonderful, kind, loving and confident little girls,” she wrote. “The last thing I would want for them is to feel that they, too, could be ridiculed for their bodies. So let's stop with the shaming, start supporting one another, and focus on what really matters.”

On Instagram, Messer posted a selfie and wrote that she was “happy” and “healthy” in two of the hashtags. “Looking back I'm sooo proud of the woman god is creating me into!” she captioned the photo. The picture garnered more than 18,000 likes from her 924,000 followers.

Though she has struggled with custody in the past, Messer currently has full custody of her three daughters: twins Ali and Aleeah and youngest daughter Adalynn. While the twins’ father, Corey Simms, regularly sees the girls, Messer claimed on the “Teen Mom 2” Season 7 reunion that Adalynn’s father, Jeremy Calvert, goes “weeks” without seeing their child.

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