Building a Business Rooted in Self-Love

When I was finishing up high school and deciding what to take in college or university I had two ideas. One was to be a teacher because I loved kids, the other was to go into business. I remember my father saying there was no money in teaching and I felt the pressure to choose money. I also wasn’t as confident back then, and the idea of standing in front of a class teaching intimidated me.

Fast forward to today – I just opened my own business about a month ago. I opened a body positive space for women to work out in and I have so many plans for the future.

How I got Started

I grew up the ‘big girl’ and was bullied in school. This resulted in very low self-esteem, and I learned to work for the love of those around me. It tainted my interactions with pretty much everyone I met. I hated myself. I hated how I looked, I hated how I talked, I was ugly and stupid and good for nothing – or that’s what the negative tape playing in my head said. At 21, I decided I’d do something about my weight and ‘get skinny’ – that turned into me obsessing over cardio (doing 3 hours a day, 6 days a week, and throwing up after every workout), weighing myself multiple times in a day and restricting my food. I was 70 pounds lighter in 6 months, but I still hated myself.

Later I met a man who told me I was beautiful – and he was the first man to tell me so. We married quickly despite my family and friends cautioning me. There was abuse and control during our dating relationship, and it only got worse after we married. Around our two–year wedding anniversary something in me shifted and I realized I deserved more and could no longer live in that pain. I told him things had to change or he had to leave, and so he left. And there I was – broken and now divorced before 30.

Finding Body Positivity

Thankfully life had just started for me. I really concentrated on healing and working on myself which meant learning to love all of me. The journey to self-love began.

A couple years in my mom challenged me to stop surviving and start dreaming, so I made a dream board and put all my dreams on it including plus size modelling – it was erased 3 times before it stuck. A couple months later, I had my first gig, and then another, and then I got an email asking if I was the next Miss Plus Canada… me! Apparently, I was. I entered the competition and ended up winning Queen, People’s Choice, and the talent portion where I shared, in a spoken word performance, my journey to self-love.

Over the next few years I started modelling, and I focused on taking care of my body as well. When I truly learned to love myself – body, mind, soul and spirit, my entire world changed! Doors opened that I never even knocked on and things just kept getting better and better. I started sharing my journey on social media and speaking to girls and women about my story in hopes that they too would see how amazing they are, and that it’s possible to love yourself fully and to build a beautiful life for yourself.

Follow Sarah’s journey: