Star in a Bra!

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to my blog. This is a blog about me and my opinions on life, love and creativity. This is something I have been wanting to do for such a long time and now that I have figured it all out (took me long enough!) I am ready to start sharing with whoever would like to listen.

Lets start at the beginning... I grew up feeling a bit uncomfortable in my own skin, like most people I guess. An only child with beautiful parents and cousins that may as well have been my brothers and sisters. But I was always ridiculed or singled out for being bigger. Kids can be cruel and let me tell you they never held back with me. All through primary school I was singled out and bullied for being the 'fat girl'. I vividly recall being on my year six camp, you know the one where they take you to Canberra?? Me and my room mates were doing what young girls do best and comparing our bodies, ranking each other on levels of 'fatness'. My 'best friend' at the time was the 'un-fattest' while I came in (surprise) 'fattest'. I was naturally upset and she took me aside to give me some soothing words of advice, "Don't worry Ser, everyone knows that it is better to be fat than ugly." She paused and looked me up and down, standing there in my knickers, "But god you are fat!" She laughed and twirled away, flicking her blonde locks in my face. Bitch!

After this 'phase' came the acne. Oh god the acne!! By the time I hit high school my face was covered in severe cystic acne. After a year at a performing arts high school my family moved to Miranda in the Sutherland Shire. I remember my first day there, sitting alone at my desk in Maths class. The two boys sitting in front of me turned and asked me if I was new, seemingly to welcome me to the school. I was mid sentence, explaining where I had come from, when one of them blurted out, "Your face is infested with pimples, sorry I just had to let that out." Everyone began to snigger, people sitting around us that I hadn't even noticed had been listening. They both turned back around, clearly uninterested in anything I had to say. From that point on walking down the corridor was an uncomfortable event, hearing the whispers and sniggers everywhere I went. My Mother supported me and supported me in getting the help I needed and soon it was cleared up, allowing me to fade slowly into the background...

My discomfort and huge loneliness in school should have turned me against any kind of education and made me happy to be free of the institution, but my thinking goes the other way. I am now working in Early Childhood Education and hope to move into Primary School Education in order to support and socially educate the next generations to come. The support and care of an honest and confident adult during my time in school would have been an amazing assistance in helping me feel more adequate. The facts are that a lot of children go through similar anxieties and social inadequacies as I did and we need more passionate and socially understanding educators in schools to not only educate academically but support them and help them to feel socially understood.

I am now a confident and happy woman, with curves that I love and an amazing and energetic spirit. I am proud of the woman I am and hope to be an advocate for all men, women and children who don't have the inner confidence or power to feel the same way about themselves.

This is what drew me to enter the Star in a Bra competition and I am so proud to announce that I made the top 20!

Please vote for me on the Curvy Kate Australia Facebook Page so I can become not only the face of Curvy Kate fashion, but to also give me the scope I need to spread this message far and wide.

Even if I don't win I will continue to blog my growing story in both the education and design fields (more on that later).

Thank you for reading,

Peace and Love

SERRA xxxx