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There's no denying it: Clara Dao is a body positivity icon, whose fearless stance on self-love has seen her encourage her large following not to best embrace their bodies, however truly strike up a romantic relationship with themselves.
It might come as a marvel, then, to be informed that she hasn't at all times been so confident. In reality, Clara's interest for self-love and body positivity stems without delay from the lack of confidence she suffered as a young person.
TheIssues sat down with Clara to hear more about her adventure to self-love and what it way to her so to lend a hand young ladies all over boost their very own self belief nowadays.
Clara Reveals That She First Felt Insecure At The Age Of 10
Clara is also an recommend for body positivity these days, but she admits that, in particular in her teenage years, she suffered from low self-esteem — something she attributes to the poisonous attractiveness requirements imposed on younger women and girls.
"I think I started feeling insecure when I was 10," Clara ponders, thinking back on her formative years, including that her skinniness and small chest steadily brought about her to question her self esteem.
"I never felt pretty enough, and I never felt like my body was good enough, for the longest time — right up until I was 19, in fact, which is when I really started my self-acceptance journey."
Clara also issues out that, whilst she began the process of falling in love with herself at 19, that is not all the time conceivable for lots of ladies.
"You know, we grow up in a society that puts ridiculous beauty standards on us - literally on children - and as an adult, you're [still] constantly bombarded with images and propaganda advertising, telling you you're not enough."
Clara Opens Up About Falling Into The Habit Of Comparing Herself To Others
"Before [I started my self-love journey], I always compared myself, wished I looked different, and wished I would wake up with a different face and body," Clara shares.
She is going on to give an explanation for that much of that used to be fueled by way of the pictures she caught onto her mirror: "I printed out pictures of 'perfect' bodies and [stuck them there], because I just really wanted my body to look like that."
"That was very toxic," she sighs, adding, "it was very bad for my self-esteem and mental health." Another factor that added to deficient psychological health, Clara is going on, were the questions she would Google. "I would Google things like, 'why am I flat-chested?' [or] 'what's wrong with me?'" she recollects.
Clara Explains Why Poor Self-Image Is More Dangerous Than We Tend To Realize
There's no two techniques about it: body shaming, no matter the body in question, has devastating consequences for the person going through it — and that is the reason something Clara is acutely mindful of.
"When you don't love yourself," — or are taught to not — "you attract people who also don't really love or accept you, because you accept the love you think you deserve."
"It really affects a lot of other things in your life, like the treatment you accept from others, and how you accept your life's circumstances," she continues. "You accept whatever life gives you and don't realize there's more."
"That's why," she nods, "it's so important to spread a message of body positivity."
How Clara Is Using Social Media For Good
While the lack of confidence Clara confronted as a youngster used to be without a doubt knowledgeable by way of the pictures she used to be exposed to in the media in her younger years, nowadays, she uses her own images to struggle the very requirements that once destroyed her self-confidence.
"I try my best to show more representation of my body type on social media," she explains.
"In a way," she wonders aloud, "I'm making the kind of content that the younger me would love to see."
"I would love it if, when a young girl Googles the same things I was, my content would come up and I could comfort them - and remind them that there's nothing wrong with them. They're still perfectly beautiful and gorgeous in their natural body, and they don't need to look a certain way to be beautiful."
Clara Dao's message is clear: all our bodies are worthy of love, and it is time we all started believing it!
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