I started modelling about a year and a half ago after I found self-love. I met a new friend in a body-positivity community on Instagram who happened to be a photographer. She invited me to do a shoot. I had never modelled or done anything like that before, but it felt amazing to embrace my body and myself.
Once I started modelling, I realized it was a great way to inspire people. I never see people like me in the media, and I know that if I had seen models who looked like me growing up, it may have been a bit easier to accept myself. I felt like it wasn’t fair for me to love myself and not help other people, because I know what it feels like to wake up everyday and not feel okay.
Eventually, I started my #BigAndBlunt movement online, which promotes body confidence and lets people know they can wear whatever they want, say whatever they want and be whoever they want as long as it’s not harming another person.
To me, being a body activist means advocating for all shapes and sizes and never judging people based on who they are on the outside. Even though the body-positivity movement has taken big steps in the past few years, I feel like it’s still super-important. There are still so many people out there who believe they don’t deserve to love themselves unless they look a certain way. I want to keep fighting for them and keep spreading the message of self-love.
Some days I wake up and feel bad about my body. It’s hard, but I’m working on my confidence every single day. I hope that by doing this photo shoot, people will see someone who’s finally at ease with her body, someone who loves herself.
More
- Prince Amponsah, actor, social work student at Ryerson University
- Monique Mojica, actor, playwright, artistic director of Chocolate Woman Collective
- Heidi Hawkins, mother and voice-over actor
- Paul Lancaric, voice-over artist
- Catherine Hernandez, author of the novel Scarborough, out soon, and mother
- Acacia Christensen, also known as Doughnut Messaround, wrestler, League Of lady Wrestlers
- Jasbina Justice, activist, yoga teacher, coordinator and performer with feminist porn company Spit
- Ted Hallett, improviser/writer, Date Me, Next Stage Festival
- Jewelz Mazzei, body activist and model
See last year’s Body Issue here.
