Banned For Being Honest? Meet Liv Schmidt, The Girl Who Made 'Skinny' Go Viral

“I was doing everything social media told me to do,” Liv told me, “and none of it made me feel good. I was miserable in my body, and faking that I felt empowered just wasn’t cutting it anymore.”

Liv Schmidt wasn’t a stranger to discipline—she’d been a competitive soccer player before a serious foot injury ended her athletic career. She pivoted to corporate life, eventually interning at Bulgari and Goldman Sachs while quietly building a beauty and lifestyle TikTok following of over 500,000. But the moment she started to lose weight, her audience changed.

“No one cared about my outfits anymore,” she said. “All they wanted to know was, ‘What are you eating?’”

At first, Liv resisted. “I didn’t want to exploit my weight loss,” she explained. But the disconnect between what she saw on social media and what she knew to be true became too frustrating to ignore. “Everyone was lying about how they looked the way they did,” she said. “These girls were splicing together days' worth of meals, taking two bites of ice cream on camera, and then throwing it away. It was a performance.”

Skinni Talk Starts Here

So Liv started posting what she was actually eating—a simple, portion-controlled routine. Her phrase—“What I eat in a day to stay skinny”—went viral. Her honesty resonated. And just like that, Skinny Talk was born.

“To me, skinny isn’t a number,” Liv said. “It’s clarity. It’s control. It’s walking out of dinner feeling light. It’s not needing a nap because your blood sugar crashed. It’s not overeating and calling it healing. It’s peace.”

She didn’t claim to have it all figured out. But what she did have—simplicity, structure, and self-discipline—struck a nerve. “At first, it was all positive. Girls were telling me, ‘I’ve had an eating disorder coach for years and nothing helped me like your content.’ Or, ‘I didn’t realize I could feel this good again.’”

But then came the backlash—when she said the quiet part out loud.

“Once I really started saying the word ‘skinny,’ everything changed,” Liv said. “TikTok didn’t ban me because I was unhealthy. They banned me because I looked the part.”

Liv had only lost 20 pounds—but it was the kind of visible transformation that TikTok couldn’t ignore. “I wasn’t someone who lost 100 pounds. I just tightened up, and suddenly people started asking what I was doing. That’s when the hate started.”

The Banhammer Falls—Again and Again

When Liv was approached by the Wall Street Journal for a piece highlighting her story of navigating weight loss while working full-time, she was excited.

Even TikTok had previously reached out to collaborate with her on TikTok Shop and its health creator panel. But when the publication requested comment from TikTok, her account vanished hours later.

“No warning, no explanation,” Liv said. “I appealed, they reinstated me, apologized—and then banned me again within hours. There were no new videos posted in between. It was like someone inside had it out for me.”

When it was all said and done, her account was reported, flagged, and removed six times in total. “You don’t get banned that much unless what you’re saying is powerful,” she said. “They were okay with girls pretending to eat 10 cookies a day and stay skinny. But when I said the truth—walk more, eat less—I got erased.”

Her original account reached nearly 700,000 followers. When she rebuilt and hit 100K, it was removed the same day. Another account hit 215K, got flagged, reinstated with an apology…and then banned again three hours later, alongside a smaller 30K account.

“I’ve had five accounts taken down and every time, TikTok refuses to tell me exactly what I’ve violated,” she said. “They say ‘community guidelines,’ but won’t specify. And meanwhile, there are girls smoking cigarettes, promoting actual disordered behavior, or stitching my content to hate on it—and none of that gets flagged.”

Even her friends got censored for defending her. “Girls posted videos just saying my name—‘Liv Schmidt’—and those got taken down,” she said. “Meanwhile, TikTok was pushing content of girls smoking cigarettes to suppress appetite or eating baby food and calling it a ‘skinny hack.’ It made no sense.”

The timing of her bans was especially suspect. Just before a feature in the Wall Street Journal was set to publish, Liv’s account was taken down.

“I was literally working with TikTok Shop and being considered for their health creator panel,” she said. “Then The Wall Street Journal reaches out for a quote, TikTok declines to comment, and the next thing I know, I’m deleted. No warning. Nothing.”

TikTok’s reason? First it was "disordered eating," but then it was changed to a vague “community guidelines” violation. But no one could say which guideline had actually been broken. “I submitted everything—my health records, my weight loss certification, all of it. They didn’t care,” she said. “They just said, ‘Stop contacting us.’”

Liv has hundreds of DMs and testimonials from women saying her content helped them overcome binge eating and disordered food patterns. “Contrary to the false narrative TikTok tried to build, my content is about healing food noise, not creating it,” she said.

And yet, the bans stayed in place.

“TikTok allowed random people to diagnose me based on a 60-second video,” she said. “Meanwhile, creators are copying my exact content—using the word ‘skinny,’ posting identical captions—and they face no consequences. Why? Because they don’t look like me. It’s targeted censorship.”

“Everyone’s body positive until it comes to someone skinny,” Liv added. “You can say ‘love yourself’ if you’re gaining, but if you’re losing? Suddenly it’s toxic.”

After a decade of being told that wanting to be smaller was shallow or oppressive, more women are done apologizing. They’re choosing clarity over chaos, peace over indulgence. They’re admitting—out loud—that they do want to look good, feel good, and fit into the clothes they love.

"They've tried to brainwash women into thinking cutting excess is weak,” Liv said. “But it’s not. It’s power. And if TikTok thinks that’s dangerous, then maybe women need to be dangerous.”

Discipline Isn’t Dangerous—It’s Just Not Profitable

“For TikTok, it’s not about safety,” Liv argued. “They don’t mind extremes. They just prefer the ones they can monetize.” Green powders, 14-step routines, and diet pills make money. Walking and eating less? Not so much.

“They couldn’t control me, so they tried to silence me,” she said.

But Liv didn’t go quietly. Instead of backing down, she doubled down—launching The Skinni Société, a community of over 6000 women and counting.

"We are a diverse community of moms, corporate girls, women from all over the world, women ages 18 and up, some over 50. But they all want the same thing: freedom from food addiction and confusion."

It offers daily group chats, monthly challenges (like “Tis the Season to Be Skinny” or her upcoming “Three-Month Angel Challenge”), exclusive recipes, workouts, wellness tips, what-I-eat-in-a-day content, and Liv’s signature food tracker—a printable journal that replaces calorie counting with mindful awareness. It's about tracking food, portions, steps, movement, and daily habits, plus a 30-day challenge.

“You just write what you eat. It’s that simple. And that honest,” she said. It also offers something rare in the online wellness space: accountability buddies.

“Other programs sell you a one-size-fits-all meal plan. But as soon as you're off it, the weight comes back,” Liv said. “I’m not about quick fixes. I’m about sustainable habits. And most importantly—community.”

Liv describes it as a supportive community of women united by a shared goal of growth over perfection and simplicity over excess—building happier, healthier habits, together through encouragement, understanding, and strength at every step of the journey. 

The Skinni Société is thriving on Instagram and YouTube, two platforms Liv now prefers. “Instagram has been amazing. Their support team is real. I love how easy it is for women to connect there,” she said.

She’s even had fans around the world meet up in person thanks to Skinni Société friendships. “There are women in Europe who love my content because they don’t see it as controversial—they see it as common sense.”

Still Standing, Still Skinny

Liv's mission hasn't changed: bring clarity and truth back to wellness. She now holds a NASM-accredited weight loss certification and continues to grow her platform with digital products and a YouTube series.

She’s the kind of influencer who doesn’t believe in overcomplicating things. “You don’t need a 21-day detox. You need honesty. You need consistency. You need freedom.”

And yes, you might need to block a few accounts.

“My #1 tip? Block anything that glamorizes laziness or binge behavior. Curate your feed with people who inspire you to live well. And if my content isn’t for you, don’t follow me. But don’t try to erase me.”

Because if there's one thing Liv knows for sure, it's that freedom isn’t found in eating the whole cookie. It's found in taking back control of your habits—and your health.

Let Liv Live

"Skinny is a mindset, not a size," Liv explained, and she added she's not trying to shame anyone. She's just telling the truth. “I know what it feels like to live in a body that feels like a cage. I don’t want other women to feel that way.”

Today, she’s fully certified as a weight loss and wellness coach, releasing digital products, and growing her YouTube presence. Her Instagram remains her HQ—and for now, she’s leaving TikTok behind.

“I don’t owe the internet a version of me that’s palatable,” Liv said. “I owe my girls the truth. If a girl bigger than me posted what I eat in a day, no one would care. But when I do, it becomes controversial. Why? Because I’m blonde, thin, young, and unapologetic.”

Her advice for anyone trying to cut through the noise: “Unfollow people who glamorize laziness. Stop chasing hacks. Start with discipline. Build the body you want, but more importantly, build the life you want.”

Whether you agree with her or not, Liv's doing something most influencers won’t: telling the truth, even when it costs her, and she knows what she's about. More walks, less noise, less guilt, and more clarity. So here’s to a 23-year-old who refused to be censored for saying what so many of us already knew deep down: Discipline is beautiful and feeling good matters.