The Girl Scouts Trying To Sell Cookies Really Don’t Need To Hear Your Diet Talk

“Oh I can’t keep those in the house, I’ll eat the whole box in one sitting.” “You guys are trying to throw me off my diet! Keep those away from me!” “Need to stay away from you, I’m trying to be healthy.” These are the kinds of things you hear during the holidays when someone brings over a box of chocolates or when a co-worker shares a cake. This kind of diet talk also makes its way to the most impressionable young girls who are just trying to sell you Girl Scout cookies. ‘Tis the season for Thin Mints, Tagalongs, and people refusing to keep their diet culture to themselves when faced with a little Brownie proudly wearing her sash filled with patches.

If you’ve ever happened upon a group of Girl Scouts standing outside Target trying to sell you cookies, you’ve probably heard people make statements like the ones above. A person will shake their head no at the girls, who might push them to buy with an “Oh come on, please!” because they really want that badge, and then the person says, “My waistband can’t afford them!” or something similar. And it feels joking and light and ha ha ha isn’t it funny that I don’t buy cookies because I might (gasp) actually eat them. But the thing is, Girl Scouts are young girls. They are hearing those comments and constantly dealing with mentions in culture and society about bodies and weight and diets and it’s the absolute last thing they need to absorb. They’re just trying to sell their cookies.

One Instagram account, @mondaydieter, focuses on content that addresses body shaming and diet culture. In a recent post, the account shared a list of things not to do when approaching a Girl Scout selling cookies, including mentioning calories or how the cookies would affect their own bodies. “A simple NO THANK YOU goes a long way for our girls,” the account wrote.

That’s really it. You don’t have to mention your body or your calories or your WeightWatcher points. You don’t have to say anything except, “No, thank you” and if you really want to support the Girl Scouts but don’t want to eat the cookies (because that’s fine if you don’t actually want cookies), you can offer to pay for boxes to be donated or just donate to the Girl Scouts in general.

A lot of people in the comments of @mondaydieter’s Instagram post argued that this kind of PSA is too dramatic. They argued that there’s nothing wrong with asking for the healthiest option of cookies or suggesting that they can’t have sugar and that’s why they can’t buy them. But truly, none of those things have to be said. Girl Scouts aren’t there to share the calorie count in each box with you or determine what your version of “healthy” is. For some, that’s a cookie made out of chickpeas. For others, it’s a cookie without a chocolate coating. Instead of letting your own diet culture and thoughts about body image and healthy behaviors filter into the little girls trying to hit their sales goal, maybe you can just politely say no thank you and keep walking.