00:00My journey to self-love has definitely been a wild ride.
00:05I started modelling when I was really young.
00:07I was literally like 18, so I feel like I was basically forced to accept myself for who I am
00:13and be confident when I walk into shoots and walk into castings.
00:16At first I definitely was a lot more shy and quiet than I am now,
00:20but I feel like the environment that I've worked in and thrived in
00:25has really helped me learn to embrace myself for who I am
00:28and not compare myself to others.
00:31I think some of the biggest challenges that I face being a plus-size model
00:35is probably comparing myself to other people.
00:37There's been, like other models specifically, there's been a lot of jobs that I've done
00:41where I've been the only plus-size model then and it's really easy to look around
00:44and just be like, oh my gosh, I don't have washboard abs like them,
00:48I don't have like a really flat stomach like them.
00:51But yeah, it's just like growing over time and just realising that you have your own unique sense of self
00:57and clearly I'm being booked for me, so why not just embrace how I am.
01:05I feel like social media has massively helped the conversation of body positivity.
01:09It's kind of where I like started.
01:11I literally started posting like body positive things and just like showing my real self
01:16because I felt like I don't want to be a catfish,
01:18like I didn't want to only post like the most glamorous side of me
01:21and then people will meet me in real life and they're like,
01:23oh, she's not the same as her Instagram.
01:25But I feel like now I have such a good balance
01:27and I feel like the rest of the world has almost followed suit
01:30and realised that what you see on social media and Instagram
01:33is just a highlight reel of people's life and how they look.
01:35It's not real life.
01:39I actually don't get that much hate,
01:41but I feel like when I stepped more into the fitness space
01:44because last year I did two half marathons
01:46and I started playing for a netball team
01:47and then when I started posting about it,
01:49I definitely got some hate from that
01:51of people being like, you don't look like an athlete,
01:53you don't look like a runner
01:54and how I deal with it is just,
01:57it sounds so cliche, but I literally just brush it off
01:59because I really enjoy what it is I do
02:01and I try to focus on what is my mission,
02:03what am I doing rather than what do I look like?
02:06I think about how does it make me feel instead.
02:11A message that I would definitely want to put out to my followers,
02:14to people watching, maybe even to my younger self
02:17would be embrace your difference,
02:20embrace your uniqueness.
02:21If you step off social media,
02:24you step out of your brain and you walk down the street,
02:28you see so many people of different skin tones,
02:30body types, heights, body shapes,
02:32get out into the real world and touch grass
02:34and you'll see that everyone is different
02:36and unique in their own way.
02:39Self-love to me means doing things for me
02:43and living my life how I want to live it,
02:45not how I think other people should be,
02:47whether that's waking up in the morning
02:49and putting on an outfit that I know
02:50might be a bit risque
02:52or might be not what someone of my size might want to wear
02:55or taking up a hobby that,
02:57in a space where other people also might not look like me,
03:00but just remembering to always live for me
03:02and do things that I want to do,
03:03regardless of other people's opinions.
03:08Hi, I'm Sunny Turner and thank you so much to Hello Fashion
03:11for having me on your self-love cover.
Comments