Women. We are Beautiful. — Issue 3
PINK SHIRT DAY took place on Wednesday, February 22nd, 2017. This day is a special event in which participants sign and wear a PINK SHIRT to take a visible, public stance against bullying. This issue is so incredibly important! So many people are bullied every day; at school, at work, at home and even on the internet by complete strangers. It’s actually become easier to tear other people down, from behind a screen. We can even be pretty good at bullying ourselves. We all need to practice kindness and acceptance towards others and ourselves. How can you love yourself, or anyone else while you are tearing yourself down?
Today, I’d like to introduce you to Sarah Taylor, an inspiring woman who has overcome so much in her journey to body positivity and self-acceptance. She is a blogger, public speaker and plus size model. Sarah shares her stories as an inspiration to help other women who have faced or are facing similar situations.
How do you feel about your body, now as compared to before?
The journey to loving my body has been a long, bumpy but worthwhile ride. I remember growing up and hating everything about my body. I was larger than all the other girls and I was a giant on top of it. After getting out of an abusive marriage I started on the journey to loving who I was. Once I was in a place that I loved the woman I was, loving my body became so much easier because I saw myself as a whole package. I no longer picked apart the parts of my body I didn’t like and focused on them. I now see who I am as a total package and it’s pretty awesome. This body has helped me overcome all that I have, it helps me in my day to day life and it’s beautiful, just the way that it is.
What is your favourite thing about your body?
Anyone who knows me knows my favourite thing about my body is my legs. I used to hate them though. I grew up being told that I shouldn’t wear anything above the knee because my legs were too big — but now I embrace them. I’ve got long, thick thunder thighs.
What’s your earliest positive body image memory? What’s your earliest negative body image memory?
I would say that my earliest body positive memory was when I was almost 30! Which just sounds crazy, why would it take so long to love the skin I’m in? Well, I guess the reason it took so long was so that I could relate with other women and talk to them about learning to love theirs too — no matter what your age. My hope is to help women learn to love their bodies a lot younger than I learned so that they can live their best lives NOW.
My earliest negative body image memory was when I was really young in elementary school. I was constantly bullied at a young age about my weight and my height. I remember in grade 5 coming home one day and getting in the bath and my mom asking me where the bruises came from — well they came from the guys beating me up in the school yard.
How do you deal with people making comments about your body, whether it be positive or negative?
When it comes to positive comments I just say thank you — that used to be really hard for me — to just accept any sort of compliment. Sometimes it’s still a little strange but I have learned to just say thank you.
When it comes to when people make negative comments about my body — well I give them a lesson in a nice way. Here’s an example. I recently had a boss who made a comment that I was beautiful but would be more beautiful if I lost some more weight. He also made a reference to my struggle in doing a physical outside activity that it was likely due to my weight. When I resigned from the position I told him that it was never ok to make a comment about a woman’s weight. I told him that I was confident in who I was but if it was another woman it may have really hurt her and that it would never be ok to do this in the future. He apologized and recognized his error. I think it’s important to educate people when they are negative about people’s bodies.
I also struggle with when people comment about weight loss. I have lost about 80 pounds over the past couple of years (and recently gained a little bit back due to an injury) and it drives me nuts when people say things like — you look so good now, better than before. Why can’t people just see people as beautiful just as they are today?
Why did you start fashion / lifestyle blogging?
Blogging was kind of an unexpected thing to be honest. I used to blog about my fitness journey and what was going on in my life but it wasn’t something that I shared a whole lot. However, when I won Miss Plus Canada in 2014 I decided that I wanted to take people along on my journey and share my insights with them on what I’ve learned — from healing from abuse, learning to love myself, and so much more. I then started to incorporate fashion into my blogs and my modelling work.
My heart is for women — for them to see their value, worth and beauty. I know what it’s like to not see those things in yourself and the unwise choices we make for our lives and I really wanted to make a difference by sharing my learning so other women didn’t have to make the same mistakes I did. As much as I love modelling and blogging — it’s really all about making a difference and helping women (and men) see their true beauty.
Growing up I wanted to model because I thought it meant I was beautiful — now I see that I was beautiful all along and I model because I simply enjoy it and I see it as a platform to reach more women to learn to love themselves and see themselves as beautiful.
Thanks for reading! XOX
Val at www.GotCurves.ca
Here is where to find the lovely Sarah online:
http://sarahtaylorsjourney.com/
Instagram: @sarahtaylorsjourney
