I’m a size 30 and proud – fat isn’t a bad word to me, I know I’m a total babe
IN our personal experience, "fat" is one of the most hurtful insults you can throw at a person - right?
But having grown up being bullied for her weight, size-30 Courtney Belle is on a mission to take back this derogatory term and reclaim it as her own.
Speaking to the , the star explained: "I spent so many years of my life hating my body, I grew up under the impression that being fat was the worst thing and got put on diets at such a young age.
"I genuinely believed that I was disgusting, that I was worthless and felt so ashamed of my body. I got terribly bullied through school and from some family that I guess you start to believe it and that’s not something that is easy to forget or unlearn."
As a teenager, the 28-year-old, from Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, said she was "obsessive" about what she was eating and how much she exercised.
After hitting "rock bottom" with her self-esteem, Courtney said she stumbled upon the body positivity community on Instagram and that's when she began seeing her figure in a new light.
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She continued: "I genuinely didn’t know that I could feel like that, that I didn’t have to hate my fat body when in actual fact I could be happy and love it just the way it is."
That said, Courtney explained how her self-confidence didn't suddenly sky-rocket overnight.
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Instead, she slowly started wearing clothes that made her feel good and challenged the ways she would speak about herself.
In the past few years, Courtney has built up a following of 10,800 fans on Instagram and even appeared on the BBC's Who Are You Calling Fat?
Now that she's approaching her 30s, the social media starlet says she's in a place where she embraces the term "fat" and sees it as a "descriptive term".
In fact, the starlet says there's "power" in calling herself a "fat babe" and hopes her page will help other people learn to love their bodies too.
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She continued: "Bodies fluctuate all the time and it’s normal.
"Like who made these unrealistic and dangerous rules up? Those 'beauty standards' aren’t true and so damaging. All bodies are different and that is okay."
