Beauty
“I Used To See My Body As The Enemy”: Iskra Lawrence Reveals How She Found Self-Love From Self-Hate
“You’re imperfectly perfect.”
Iskra Lawrence is a plus-size model with a flourishing career. She always looks like she enjoys herself because she indeed, loves herself. And it was thanks to learning about self-love and accepting your own body. The body positivity movement is something that she can relate deeply with.
But she wasn’t always like this – Iskra recalls the time when she would hate her own body. Even though she was much more slimmer than she is now.
The model spoke in an interview, “It’s not something we’re taught. I used to see my body as the enemy because the fashion industry at that time was telling me that I had to be taller and smaller. And I couldn’t physically do it.”
“As much as I restricted myself with eating or exercising, my hips were still too big. But you can’t think your body is your enemy when it’s your home. Changing that narrative took a long time, but now I’m not worrying about a thigh gap or some cellulite.”
“It’s about changing the priority from what your body looks like to what it can do.”
Iskra’s viral moment was when she criticized for eating chips and contributing to poor health. But Iskra had went through so much at that point that she made the most obvious reply she could think of: continue eating the chips like a normal person.
Her action resonated with many people who are obviously baffled at the comment. To be insulted for eating chips because your size should have allowed you to can create such an unhealthy relationship food.
“You’re imperfectly perfect” is the spell she chants to herself and others.
And after finding the confidence and love in her own body, she wants others to also feel the same. She shared in an interview, “I used to have a perfection complex, which manifested itself negatively when I was obsessed with trying to lose weight. Because being a perfectionist you never want to give up.”
“So when I started realizing that no one is perfect and integrating that into other areas of my life, I stopped feeling guilty about what I ate and about wanting to say no to certain things.”
“Understanding that you can mess up, failure is just a part of life, and it’s a lesson that helped me to take the pressure off myself.