From being a regular Delhi girl to walking the ramp in a swimsuit as a plus-sized model, life has come full circle for Sakshi Sindwani.
She runs a popular fashion channel- Style Me Up With Sakshi, on YouTube and other social media channels. And she has been instrumental in starting the dialogue around normalizing plus size on social media in a conservative society like ours. She walked as a model at Lakme Fashion Week in August 2019. Her stylemeupwithsakshi Instagram account has also grown to more than 300,000 followers.
For all her fans out there, Women Fitness India recently had the wonderful chance to chat with the stunning Influencer about her life, body positivity, and much more
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
In India, there are not many plus-size models and influencers as compared to the west, tell us how your journey in the world of fashion and lifestyle begin?
Ms. Sakshi Sindwani:
Not many people know this, but I actually started off of YouTube. I was obsessed with YouTube ever since I was in sixth grade in school. So back in the day when Youtube became a thing it was way before that. Also when I was in sixth grade and I’m twenty five right now, that’s when I started YouTube and I was a much skinnier girl.
I wasn’t a plus sized girl at all, I was a mid-sized girl. And a lot of people said at that point of time, even being a mid-sized girl was taken like such a big deal. Like nobody looked like me, not even not even a size 12 on the Internet everybody saw there were skinny girls who were doing YouTube videos. So a lot of people are commenting that, you know, that’s such a breath of fresh air that, since I was a mid-sized body doing fashion and lifestyle. And I think that’s where my body positivity journey began because it was the people who encouraged.
They were like, it’s so nice to see a full-size body, wearing a skirt or a cropped up this and that and styling it in such an organic way because I would never preach body positivity. I didn’t even know, and I truly feel like I became body positive because of my audience, because they told me how I was inspiring them and that inspired me. So that’s how it all really began. I have been on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar magazine, Vogue, and did multiple features with Cosmo, it’s been great so far!
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
As mentioned that you have been body shammed by your family, how did you deal with it, your message for girls who go through the same? What helped you overcome the same.
Ms. Sakshi Sindwani:
I’m from a Punjabi family. So discussions about who gained weight and who lost weight is like a primary conversations that my family would have.And because I was a fat kid. I got really shamed a lot because everybody would keep telling me to lose weight, not a lot of people know this, but when I was in school, when I was in eighth grade to 10th grade I was probably anorexic in 10th grade in school I was a size six and I’m a size 14 to 16 now. So I was extremely underweight, malnourished, properly. It was just it was just bad. I would not eat anything. Had the proper eating disorder and this happened because, you know, the society told me that being fat is not something good? I wouldn’t get the attention of the boys. I would get constantly scolded by my dad.
My home atmosphere was going to be negative because I was gaining so much weight. So when I decided to lose weight and it started happening, I got addicted to the feeling of that losing weight sort of situation. People don’t realize how fast I was losing weight and how much weight I was losing in a very short duration of time. Um, and that led to an obvious eating disorder.
How do I deal with body shaming? Now shaming doesn’t happen. I feel like I’ve spoken about body shaming so much and the body was really so much on my page and everybody knows that I’m associated with it. There’s nobody in my family that’s going to speak about it now. But back in the day, I don’t remember fighting about it with anybody. I just remember just being so silent and absorbing everything, just let them body shame me. I think most girls end up doing that because what can you say to your elders in your family? You know, when they’re doing that, you can’t tell them they’re wrong. You just go cry about it in a room and you go sleep in the night because they’ve said something mean.
You need to be wise with your words and you need to tell them in clear words that it’s not okay to body shame
This interview is exclusive and taken by Namita Nayyar, President womenfitness.org and should not be reproduced, copied or hosted in part or full anywhere without an express permission.
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