“I am fat. Like, I am fat. It’s just a descriptive word.”
The words above come from British model Olivia Campbell, who, by all outward appearances, is a gorgeous, confident woman who also happens to be overweight. But the more physical layers she strips off for Stylelikeu’s “What’s Underneath Project,” the more she reveals about her struggle to get to a point where she could say those words without hating herself.
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“Fat is still such a negative word,” she says. “People think: How dare you be fat and happy. How dare you be fat and be having sex. How dare you be fat and be getting chatted up more than me.”
It took Campbell a long time to get to that point of acceptance. In an incredibly touching interview that, at times, turns tearful (I’m not crying, you’re crying), she reveals that, due to the near-constant emotional and sexual abuse at school, she dropped out at age 15. (One boy she had a crush on routinely called her a “water buffalo,” which certainly can’t be good for a teen’s sense of self-worth.)
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She also opens up about her struggle with depression, and getting through the cancer diagnoses of both her mother and her stepmother. “The talking was worth it,” she says, stating that medication just didn’t work for her.
Campbell’s interview comes at what feels like a turning point in our view of what’s an “acceptable” body type: everyone from Chrissy Teigen to everyday women on Facebook are defending themselves fiercely against body shamers, not to mention that Lane Bryant ad that ABC and NBC thought we couldn’t handle. (Because, oh no! Overweight naked people!)
But it’s not all tears. Campbell’s interview is stuffed to the brink with gems and hilarity — she’s got a great sense of humor about herself. And now, she’s perfectly fine calling herself fat.
“I’m happy with my body. I’m happy with my madness. That’s all I can ask for, really,” she says, finally stripping off her undershirt and balancing on a stool in nothing but her bra and underwear. She’s exposed herself both physically and emotionally for all the world to see, and what’s underneath all the layers is a beautiful thing.
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