Bringing back my Burberry modelling days ?
When I saw this photo of Ashley Graham, it got my attention. Why? Because my underarm has always been my most insecure part of my body and whenever I lift weights above my head in the gym, I stare at that part in the mirror the WHOLE TIME.
But there she was – putting it on show, and her arm looked like mine! That is the power of representation.
She was curvy like me, in the similar places to me and ok, she wasn’t the same race as me, and ok, she doesn’t have scars.
But in that moment, I saw myself in her.
I just wish I had someone like her to look up to when I growing up.
EVERYONE DESERVES THAT.
Just because I see myself in parts of her, doesn’t mean everyone does. We all deserve to be seen, we all deserve to grow up being recognised by an industry that defines what is beautiful because that shit matters when you are a child.
It’s so wrong that it took me 21 years of life to see a scarred body and it wasn’t in a magazine or on a billboard, it was on a beach. To this day, I have yet to see someone in a fashion campaign with a surgery scar that hasn’t been retouched and removed. I wasn’t asking to see someone with 15 scars like me, but seeing someone with ONE surgery scar would have been nice.
When a scar is never seen, the small girl with a scar learns to hide it.
When a disability is never shown, the small girl in a wheelchair learns that’s what makes her different.
When gay individuals aren’t heard, young children learn to stay in the closet.
When chronic illness is not spoken about, they suffer in pain alone.
When old women aren’t shown, we all are shamed for aging.
Now tell me representation isn’t important! #scarrednotscared