Welcome back!
I am so excited to announce the start of guest posting on my blog and we are starting with an interview with a great pal of mine! I came across Chelsie on Instagram, when she was just starting her body-positive account and connected with her instantly. She serves warmth, love and honesty in all her posts and I know youâll love her as much as I do!
Letâs take it over to the woman herself!
Thank you so much for taking part in this interview, Chelsie! To kick start, can you tell us a little about yourself and your journey with body positivity?
Hi Ellie! Thank you so much for having me. As you already know, I'm Chelsie, I am twenty-six years old and living in Scotland. My body positive journey only really started a couple of months ago. The last couple of months have been so eye-opening for me, and I've started to see myself in a different light. I spent a lot of years of struggling with weight gain and body issues. Before lockdown, I was going to the gym 3 or 4 times a week, only to watch the number on the scale change. I wasn't making myself happy at all, I was only just enhancing the self-hate I had for my body. When lockdown hit, I couldn't go to the gym so I had to take a step back. I invested my time online following positive accounts and taking the time to set up my own account, it wasn't intended to be a body-positive account, to be honest, it was a happy accident. I just wanted a space where I could express myself creatively. I had all this free time and I didn't want to spend it focusing on my body. The journey is still ongoing, but I'm excited to see where it takes me. I just know that it feels like a weight has been lifted and I've never been happier!
What do self-love and self-care mean to you?
They're both very important to me, I feel like self-care and self-love go hand in hand. Practising self-care is showing your body that you appreciate it. It can be as simple as putting on a face mask or running a nice bath, it instantly boosts your mood and makes you feel better both physically and mentally. There doesn't need to be fancy products involved or lots of money. The simpler the better! Self-love comes in lots of different forms, taking the time to get rid of negative energy, bad influences. I feel itâs necessary to add any sort of self-care/love into your life, it can do wonders for your self-esteem!
As someone who promotes self-love and body celebration, what are your top tips for someone starting their own acceptance journey?
That's a good question! Some things I've found helpful throughout my own journey are:
1. Surrounding yourself with positive influences, either online or in real life. Having people who hype you up, with anything you do in your life, really makes a difference. Share experiences, open up about how youâre feeling. 2. Don't be too hard on yourself. Have a bad day, it's normal, learning to love who you are is difficult, we've been taught from a very young age that we have flaws or imperfections so itâs going to be hard to erase that. Take your time. Check-in with yourself often, and don't give yourself a hard time. Lastly, 3. Look after yourself and be kind to your body. Throughout the years, I was so awful to myself, I thought I was too ugly, too fat and unworthy of love. You need to focus on loving yourself and the rest will follow. Take time for you, drink plenty of water, eat that piece of cake and donât feel guilty about it! Tell yourself you're beautiful. Most importantly, don't care about what others think. Live your life for you.
Do you face any challenges with having a body acceptance page?
Yeah, like most body-positive pages, I get a lot of men in my DMS, or weird accounts following me, my block list has never been this long! I try my best to provide a safe space for all women. I'm lucky I havenât received any negative or mean comments and my experience has been very positive. I hope it continues, but I'm prepared for that day to come. Just block and delete!!
Do you find Instagram to be a positive or negative place for people struggling with body image? And do you face challenges with the app too?
It can be both a positive and negative, like any social media platform tbh. On my personal account, I found it very negative. I followed a lot of interesting people, however, I did also follow people who made me feel rubbish about myself, which wasn't their fault at all! At that time I was just in a very low place with my body and the internet certainly didn't help. Instagram can be very washed out with âperfectâ people with no one showing their flaws, however, on the flip side you have the body positive community who shed light on a range of issues and it can be very insightful and powerful to read. These women inspire me every day to be a better person! I find that I have a love/ hate relationship with the app. I try my best to put out content that is useful or helpful to others but I feel that Instagram has a way of hiding a lot of important content.
Itâs no secret that this year has been a rollercoaster so I want to know, what are you looking forward to this year?
Hasn't it just!! Before everything kicked off, I started a new job within the Scottish courts' service, then lockdown happened and I was sent home for 3 months, (I live furthest away and all public transport to the city had stopped). I'm so glad to be back though and finding my feet again, Iâm looking forward to the career opportunities to come. I'm also looking forward to starting my driving lessons again, moving into a new flat, and just all the wonderful life experiences that were put on hold due to COVID. Even though a lot has happened over the last few months, I'm excited about the future, it can only get better from here, 2020 the year of growth!
Finally, is there anything else you would like our readers to know about you, or any advice you may have?
My best advice is always to be yourself! It's cliche but the message is straight to the point! People will always have their own opinions but at the end of the day, itâs your life. Live it however the fuck you want. And if you want to know more about me, 3 fun facts!
1. My birthday is on new year's day,
2. I'm half American and lived there until I was about four years old.
3. My favourite colour is yellow!
Iâve really enjoyed answering your questions, Ellie! Thank you so much for letting me be a part of your blog! Sending lots of love and positivity your way! Chelsie @bodyposichelsie_ xox
A note from Ellie:
I absolutely loved interviewing Chelsie for the start of this series! She is a true light and positive influence in this world. Make sure you head over to Instagram and give her a follow, I promise you won't be disappointed!
If you're interested in submitting a guest post or doing an interview for my blog, please feel free to get in touch via the contact form or DM me on IG! Thank you!
With love from me to you x
Copyright Š 2020 - Ellie-Louise Des Baux