Growing up, I’ve always had an average body size. I was not skinny nor was I chubby, just average. That all changed when I went to primary school and this change occurred around year 3 or 4 of primary school. Not only did I grow taller, I became chubby.

I’ve always been bigger than all my friends and I always wanted to wear the type of clothing they wore but I had to be realistic about my life. I could never fit into a skirt. I remember I was in year 9 and my friends and I were standing in a circle at a fun fair at school and we were talking about our favourite brands to wear and the size conversation popped up. My one friend who was short spoke about herself wearing a size 28 jeans and my taller but still skinny friend said she wore a 34 and another said 36 and another said 32 and I never said anything, I never commented because I wore a full size 40 jeans when I was in year 9 and I was embarrassed.

Back then I was not social media savvy so I didn’t know there was someone like Thickleeyonce who embraced and loved her body, and who she was, I didn’t know there was such a person.

The one part or feature on my body I didn’t have a problem with were my stretch marks. I knew in my head that everyone had stretch marks in some part of their body and mine were visible to everyone. I wear all types of clothing, so when it’s summer and the temperatures are just right I love wearing dresses, and not the kind that have sleeves, but I like wearing dresses and I have stretch marks from my shoulders to half way through my arms and I still wear short sleeve dress and shirts, I found a way to wear crop tops and not be shamed by it.

The stretch marks are truly the one part of my body I can say I am really happy about and have accepted that they’re here to stay. After year 9, of course I started to lose weight and went on crazy diets, I remember in year 10 I didn’t eat all of winter because I had weight to lose. I was still not comfortable in my own body. I stopped the crazy diets towards the end of my year 11 because my mum was threatening to admit me to psychiatrists because of all the crazy things I wanted to do. At one point I was considering a tapeworm transplant because we had learned about them in class.

But it came to the point where I stopped my crazy diets, I realised that if people like Thickleeyonce, Chrissy Metz and Rebel Wilson can do what they do on a daily basis and still not care what the world thinks because they know they’re worth, then definitely a teenage girl like myself can do the same.