Chelsea's Story.

When I started high school I was confident and happy to be who I was. I had my friends, I had good grades, I thought I had everything and I thought no one would be able to pick out my flaws.

How wrong was I? Very wrong! A month or two into year 7 people started to tear me down about a couple of things. These were my weight, the way I looked and the fact that I was in foster care. I didn’t care what they would say about me being in care because I knew my mum loved me and foster family loved me, but when they started saying comments about my weight I didn’t know what to do.

People would say I look like a man, I’m fat, know one will ever want me, I should die and many more comments. Up to year 10 I managed to keep it to myself that this was going on because it didn’t seem that bad. However when I got to year 10 I fell out with my best friend of 7 years and she started tearing me down. The bullying got so bad that I stopped eating as a way to lose weight, I didn’t want to go to school and I wanted to kill myself.

My foster parents noticed a change in me that year and asked me what was going on....I didn’t want to worry them so I didn’t tell them at first until one day all my emotions came out of the bottle. They decided to move me school which was so much better for me. However when I went to go pick out my prom dress in 2017 and I saw the picture of me I could see I had put weight on and all I could think about was the comments my bullies used to say to me. I didn’t like it. So I decided to stop eating again. My friend George started to notice a change in me and asked what was going on so I told him everything and still to this day whenever I’m down he reminds me that I’m strong and amazing and I’m so thankful to have someone like that in my life.

When I started college I met my best friend Verity. Verity and I are very similar when it comes to body confidence but we remind each other regularly that we are who we are and that we should love ourselves. So know I don’t care about my weight, yes sometimes I think about it but who am i impressing? No one but myself as I’m the most important person to keep healthy and confident in my life. So thank you George and verity for boosting up my confidence and making me realise I’m better than the people who bullied me in school.

Everyone has their own story and this is mine.

With love Chelsea