Before I started following BYOU on Instagram and even before having the following I have on Instagram, I never thought I was beautiful.
You can’t blame me because I was bullied all throughout grade school because of the way “I looked” and the way I was because I was just too expressive and theatrical and I guess to my peers that was weird because it was “different”. They would even call me four eyes and bunny face because I had glasses and had teeth like a bunny. After my sophomore year in high school I moved to the Philippines because I was given a contract to be a singer over there for 5 years and it was a great experience but the part that hurt me the most and still gets the best of me sometimes is remembering how I was constantly told that I was fat and that I NEED to lose weight. I understand that in the Philippines it is the norm but moving back to California made me realize that it isn’t right.
For a long time, I really thought I was ugly and even when I lost the weight they wanted me to lose even more. Some people thought I was on drugs because I was just too skinny, isn’t that sad? In all honesty, even when people called me beautiful and sexy at the time, I didn’t feel that way and I was not happy with how I looked. It was so depressing because I just never felt like I was enough for anybody. Thank goodness when my contract ended I realized a lot about myself that I don’t need to lose weight to be accepted in society.
It took me 3 years to really accept and love my body for what it is. During those 3 years, I went to therapy because it made me so depressed and I really felt as if life was not worth it. But with great family members and friends by my side, I truly learned to love myself. It was really hard, in the beginning, to love myself because I am the type of person where I take care of others first and put myself last. But I should really put myself first and it’s not being selfish but it’s really learning how to give care and love to oneself.
I feel like everyone should learn how to love her or himself. It’s unfortunate that some celebrities and society tells us to look and act a specific way but I believe that we are all like snowflakes because we should freely and proudly be unique in our own way. The way I started showing self-love to myself was by doing what I truly wanted to do.
In 2016 I started dressing up in the 40’s and 50’s style because wearing that fashion trend really made me feel drop dead gorgeous. It makes me so happy when I dress up like that. I was able to look at myself in the mirror and say “Wow I look hot,” and that feeling is a feeling that I wish everyone can feel like when they look at her or himself in the mirror. All because of that I wanted to inspire people with similar experiences such like mine and inspire others to follow what their heart desires because as corny as it sounds, this life we are all living is a gift and we should live it the way we want to.
So I started blogging and making YouTube videos and from there I received kind messages of how I am uplifting others and as a kid, I always wanted to empower others and here I am doing it. BYOU is a great Instagram page that is full of love and positivity. This page is so empowering that it’s so contagious. I truly love every post that BYOU puts up. I really hope I can be as inspiring as BYOU.
Written By: Beatriz
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