Gabe Escobar, 17, kept seeing TikTok videos from teen girls about recovering from an eating disorder.

Escobar, a senior at Radnor High School, had previously struggled with an eating disorder himself and thought that opening up through TikTok could help other guys going through the same thing.

TikTok is known primarily for silly videos but a recent trend has seen videos of teens speaking candidly about struggles with mental health, writes Bethany Ao and Ellie Silverman for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Escobar’s TikTok video about his experience racked up 152,500 likes and sparked the most messages he’s ever received referencing a single post. He currently has 1.4 million followers.

“It’s something that not a lot of people know about me, and I thought it was a good way I could share my experience,” said Escobar. “Since I can reach so many people and I can have such an influence over such a large group, I just thought it was something that I should do.”

Teenagers are using viral memes with self-deprecating humor to talk about loneliness, anxiety, sexuality, insecurities, depression, and relationship abuse.

Read more about Gabe Escobar and this new trend with TikTok here.

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