Matt Joseph Diaz

Matt Joseph Diaz

Bio

Matt Joseph Diaz is a public speaker and social media activist tackling the issues of body image and self love. Matt has been working in social media since the age of 15, and has a long history of creating online content for entertainment and educational purposes. Matts videos have accrued over 120 million views in countries all over the world as well as being featured in People, Cosmopolitan, Buzzfeed, Upworthy and numerous other news websites. He now spend a lot of his time traveling and speaking on self love at conferences, colleges and public events. Matt Joseph Diaz currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.   

Matt Joseph Diaz Articles

Your feelings are valid. Image: Thinkstock.

Having A Mental Illness Doesn't Make Your Feelings Invalid

People who live with mental illness are aware of how our brains work differently. Because of this, we constantly go the extra mile to try to validate what we’re feeling within ourselves before even considering voicing an opinion out loud.

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Your child's body is not a "problem" (Image Credit: Thinkstock)

On The Subject Of Childhood Dieting

Though it's worth noting that my weight was beginning to become a health concern, I’d never considered my body a “problem” until I heard how doctors talked about it. In the same way a hurt child won’t start to cry until he sees the worry in his parent’s face, I never felt bad about my body until the first time I felt like I was being looked at with disgust. So whatever route you decide to take with the health of a child, make sure it’s treated as a growing opportunity and not a solution to a problem. Your children are not problems — they are the foundation upon which the adults of tomorrow will be built.

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The fact that your opinions are subject to change doesn’t make them invalid as they exist now. Image: Thinkstock.

I'm In My 20s And I Know I Don't Want Kids

I'm 23 years old, I don’t want children, and every elder who discovers this feels compelled to tell me how wrong I am about my own feelings.

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I went by the umbrella term “queer” for the first year and a half because I was convinced I didn’t qualify as bisexual. Image: Imani Clovs/Unsplash.

My Bisexuality Is Real — No Matter Who I Date

If I get into a heterosexual relationship and spend the rest of my life with that person, I will still be bisexual. I will still feel that attraction to the man on the other side of the bar, even if I’m in love with my partner who happens to be a woman.

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"The body positive movement strives to put forth one idea: that all body types are valid, regardless of their shape, size, or disability." Image: Thinkstock

Your Body Positivity Needs To Include More Than Just You.

It’s pretty easy to see why people would want to rebel against [our current standard of beauty] — it’s unattainable, and even for those who manage to reach something close to it, it’s often unsustainable. However, in rebelling against the oppressive system, we run into situations where people denigrate others who happen to more closely fit the description of what we recognize as the ideal.

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Mondays With Matt: Masturbation

Mondays With Matt: We're Talking Masturbation

This Monday, Matt helps us celebrate Masturbation Month! (To say anything else would betray the beauty of this video.)

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I heard the unmistakable sound of the front door unlocking.

Lessons The Worst Hookup Of My Life Taught Me About Relationships

Do you remember that incredibly awkward feeling you’d get during childhood when you went over to a friend’s house for dinner and their parents started arguing? This was like that — only your dick is out and you got caught having sex with one of the parents.

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Those 24 hours unplugged were an interesting experience.

5 Things That Happen When You Lose Your Phone For 24 Hours

Being unable to post photos of funny signs outside of bars or live-tweet bad reality TV had more of an effect than I'd anticipated.

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Love is the only thing we try to claim is beautiful because it lasts forever.

It’s Time To Redefine What We Call A “Successful Relationship"

I've long considered myself a collector of failed relationships. From the girlfriend I asked out during a bar crawl and dated for eight days to the conservative Christian who thought her love was “saving me from a life of debauchery,” I actually gained a little pride from my list of failed love affairs. However, while these relationships were problematic, what made them “failures?”

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