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

"Our mental illnesses are not a substitute for your bland personality, nor are they buzzwords you can use because they sound more interesting than saying you’re a 'neat freak.'" Image: Thinkstock

Saying “Bipolar” And “OCD” Casually Doesn't Make You Quirky Or Edgy

I’m about to be in the midst of a depressive episode. At times like these, I’ve learned to take a step back from social media. While I do ultimately believe social media is a force for good, a means through which we can connect to, learn more about, and inform one another, there’s a real problem with how mental illness is portrayed there.

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She explained that she had been caught off-guard and had been projecting her own deeply-rooted body image issues onto me. Image: Thinkstock.

Why I Defend The Person Who Rejected Me

Once I became a body positive writer and speaker, I told the story of that night on podcasts and in interviews as an example of the sort of reaction I was afraid of prior to my video about my excess skin going viral. Every time, the interviewer made a comment about how Dana was “the ugly one,” not me. And every time, I told them I didn’t want her to be vilified or insulted.

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"There is always someone who loves you. There is always someone who cares."

Mondays With Matt: Why Faith In Humanity Still Matters

"There is always someone who loves you. There is always someone who cares."

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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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New places give us opportunities to grow.

#MondaysWithMatt: Be Your Best Self, Everywhere You Go

You are not where you're from, and you are not your environment.

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It's going to be OK! #STDAwareness month. Image: Thinkstock.

11 Questions I Asked Myself During My First STD Scare

For some of us, our first real taste of adulthood comes from sitting alone in a clinic, waiting to get our ding-dongs tested.

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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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Matt Joseph Diaz

What Major Surgery Can Teach You About Change

When you go through a difficult, traumatic, or transformative experience, there’s a part of you that wants to hold onto the person you were before it happened. You try so hard to hold onto a simpler time–a time when things weren’t so scary. But you can’t.

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