Alex Koszeghy originally didn’t go to many sporting events while at college, but she finally decided to check something off her bucket list last year and went to a football game — completely covered in paint and glitter.

“I will never forget that day for as long as I live. Once I painted up for a game, I realized that there was no going back,” Koszeghy, now a senior at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, said in an Instagram post. “There is nothing that compares to the feeling of being covered in paint alongside other Heels cheering on the team.”

Koszeghy is now known as “Glitter Girl,” and frequently uses Instagram and social media to keep people updated on her life and inspire others who are struggling with eating disorders. Koszeghy was diagnosed with anorexia as a teenager, but going to UNC events has been part of her recovery, according to The Daily Mail.

After she went to a game UNC played against FSU this year, Koszeghy started covering herself in glitter, inspired by FSU’s Garnet and Gold Guys, according to USA TODAY.

“People loved it and I really loved it too, so the glitter stayed from then on out,” she told The Daily Mail.

Koszeghy will be graduating from UNC in May and according to USA TODAY, she will be pursuing a master’s degree in school counseling at the University of Virginia. She will always be a Tar Heel though, she told USA TODAY.

Taking off the glitter is “a pain,” Koszeghy told The Daily Mail, adding that she brings her phone to the shower with her to watch Netflix after games because taking the glitter off takes so long.

She told The Daily Mail that she is always finding patches of paint all over her body.

Koszeghy told The Daily Mail for the majority of her life she’s struggled with insecurities and self-esteem problems. She eventually developed anorexia as a teenager because of these issues, Koszeghy said, which she then struggled with for years.

She eventually decided though to embrace her personality and stopped worrying about fitting in.

“I have stopped trying to hide who I am and have just let the world see my sparkle. And that is how glitter girl kind of came to be … glitter girl was just the culmination of me accepting myself and embracing who I was without worrying about fitting in,” she told The Daily Mail.

“It was years of voices in my head constantly saying, ‘You’re fat,’ ‘Why did you eat that?,’ ‘Go exercise’ — and it was 24/7,” Koszeghy told People. She also told People that being Glitter Girl has helped her recover from that time of her life.

Koszeghy used social media in an attempt to destigmatize mental illnesses and inspire others affected by eating disorders, she told USA TODAY.  Instagram has allowed her to connect with people who are going through similar struggles, she told Teen Vogue.

She also said she tries to be open, honest and vulnerable on social media and show the world her ups and downs, her smiles and her tears, her strengths and her weaknesses, she told USA TODAY.

“I just hope that this can show people that real life is not always reflected on social media,” she told USA TODAY.

Published on April 6, 2017 at 8:25 am

Contact Deniz: dsahintu@syr.edu