Lyanna Lynette, the face of Torrid recently shared her story with Elle, on loving her body and finding encouragement despite setbacks in the modeling world. She shared some really inspiring thoughts about never wanting to be a certain number on a scale, but always keeping in mind her happiness, and searching for what we like to call an overall balance of wellness.
She went on to say, “I really, really started loving and appreciating my body in my early 20s. At that point I just kind of said, “You know what? I am going to love myself because if I don’t love myself first, who is going to love me?” I think you really need to be confident and love yourself first before you can depend on others to accept you. That way, if you accept yourself, you don’t need someone else’s approval on how you look or how you feel. If you know and you feel beautiful, that’s all that matters.”
And even thought she went through a lot of highs and lows with feeling good about her weight, nothing that even at her highest of 310 pounds she loved her body, and that’s the most important thing. She added,” I always had confidence. Losing weight was about being healthy and loving yourself enough to take care of yourself. And after Torrid recruited her she realized, ” This is why I went through everything that I went through–to inspire other women.” Don’t let one “no” define your future, wait for that one “yes”–that’s what I did.”
Lyanna’s story is one of encouragement and perseverance, but the message for me was mainly love. Love for oneself, love for your body, your mind, your soul, from the top of your head to the bottom of your toes. Reading about her falling in love with herself at different points in life and learning how to navigate body acceptance regardless of other’s opinions around her is a lesson we could all learn from.
