What does confidence mean to you?
In my opinion, confidence is being able to trust who you are, what you can do, and how you see things and not being afraid of the judgment or disapproval of another person.
Your ethos and brand is all about empowering women. What methods have you found to be the most successful way to do this?
By engaging. You can’t shout empowerment at people, you can’t just make them feel a certain way. People need to want it. And that’s when I engage. I love that I can post about it on social media all the time, but I’m genuinely invested in the responses I receive and the conversations around that. It’s often I find messages in my Instagram DMs where a person might share with me what my page has done for their self-confidence, how it has helped them. If you really want that message of empowerment to go somewhere, you’ve got to be willing to engage with the people that want it and need it and not focus on those who aren’t interested. What’s that saying? You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. It’s trying to inspire people to want to empower themselves.
I like to lead by example. I encourage plus size women to feel good: if you want to wear that dress, you wear that dress, you know? I hope that by seeing me, carefree, wearing what I want, doing what I want; I will hopefully inspire others to do the same. People think confidence is a personality trait, however I think it’s a skill that you develop. I’m open with how I’m feeling: if I’m insecure today – maybe I don’t like my arms today – but I want to wear a certain outfit, I will wear it but I will tell the truth that I don’t feel the most confident. From looking at me, you probably wouldn’t have even known that I was insecure, I make sure I walk the walk, but I’m honest with the way that I feel.
I did Notting Hill Carnival around 2018, around the time I had just started my journey. And I wore shorts with fishnet tights. I didn’t want to, I wanted to go there in a long black dress, completely covered up. But I didn’t let myself, I knew I had to challenge myself – how can I take to Instagram, encouraging people to embrace and be confidence within themselves when I’m not doing the same thing?