Sol Walkling's Blog

Popular body love website Plus Size Models Unite asked women around the world what they love about themselves. The response was fantastic! “What I Love About Me” will become an ongoing feature on the site that celebrates what we love about ourselves instead of focusing on what we perceive as our flaws.

The post received a whole lot of feedback. I’ve cut it down a bit and selected only a few answers – to create a mix of the answers that didn’t focus solely on physical features… Hang on, that’s not entirely true, the last post below – also one of the most popular with readers – talks about “the walk”.

Perhaps we should take a leaf out of  Sophia Loren’s book (also quoted on the website) who famously said “Everything you see, I owe to spaghetti.”  The message is pretty clear: Love yourself, be good to yourself and do what you love. If that’s eating spaghetti, good on ya! Most importantly, don’t take yourself too seriously.

Okay, time to talk about what we love about ourselves, girls. I’ll go first.

Solveig Walkling

I love that my head is full of stories.

Ever since I was a child, I’ve felt as if my head is just filled up to the brim with them and ready to burst. I used to tell them to myself – especially at bath time or when around water (when I was younger) and invent all these characters and fantasy lands.

These days, when I’m calm and resting in myself and I listen to my imagination, it’s still just as colorful as it was when I was a kid. It’s wonderful and lets me look at the world differently; drifting into other worlds in the here and now and turning a pigeon into a dragon and an arch into a magical portal. One day, I’ll have to start putting them down onto paper.

Jill Smith

Interesting, as I sat down to write about what I loved about myself it took a while, as I have never given it much thought. I encourage all women to ponder that question as the first thing that comes to mind is “what I do or being a caretaker” when in fact, that is not who you are. I decided that what I love about myself is that I am honest, loving, and kind. I am pretty much a kid trapped in a grandma’s body and what you see is who I am. As far as physical traits, I have a great smile and have always thought my ears were pretty much perfect!

Kate Fridkis

I love my underlying belief in my uniqueness. And I don’t just mean, “Yeah, everyone is their own person, and therefore we’re all special.” I mean, I actually sometimes believe that I am fantastically different. That it is my differences that make me fascinating, rather than off-puttingly odd or inappropriate.

I live in a society that purportedly adores individuality, yet stresses the importance of all high school girls wearing exactly the same style of jeans. I have a big nose. I look ethnically Jewish. I was homeschooled. These are things that struggle to find a spot in the category “cool.” But I am absolutely unwilling to ignore the things about myself that aren’t stereotypically hot, or even allow them to be significantly downplayed.

Instead, I stare at them in the mirror, and wrestle with them until I feel satisfied, sometimes only for a moment, that I am not just getting by, or dealing, but that I am even more exciting as a person because of the things that distinguish me.

*You can visit Kate’s blog at www.eatthedamncake.com.

Lauren Koenig

One thing I’ve always loved about myself, is my ability to just let go. I love to walk into a room where I don’t know anyone and have the best time of my life. I believe in who I am, what I stand for, and where I want to go in life. I think that when you are around people…and you let them know that you are comfortable with who you are, then that will give them the confidence to help them let down their wall.

Ysabel VelásquezMy mom taught me not to compare myself with other girls. I grew up in a country where the imperative esthetic is dominated by the Miss Venezuela type: extra thin and extra tall. Embracing my uniqueness makes me the strong, confident, and beautiful woman that I am today.

I love myself in all the extension: my body, my curves, my power to make a difference, and to be a role model for all the women who suffer in silence for not accepting their shape. I tell them that life is easier when you walk proud, take care of yourself both inside and out, and discover the beauty within you.

Natasha Devon

I love my walk. It might sound like an odd thing to love about oneself, but it represents so many different things for me, it’s a walk that expresses a thousand emotions and encapsulates who I am…

1994…I’m 13, my ex-fashion model turned buyer mother takes me to one side and says ‘Natasha, we need to talk about your walk’…

My walk wasn’t something I’d given a great deal of thought to; I just knew how I FELT and that was, for various reasons, like absolute crap. It transpired that I walked as if constantly searching for something I’d dropped – head down, deep in concentration, meandering from one side to the other in a potentially annoying fashion.

So, approximately 12 years and 2 months after I took my very first steps, I re-learned the art of walking: Shoulders back, head high and with lashings of attitude. Round and round the dining room table I went, mimicking my mother’s swishing posterior as she demonstrated the art of the strut. At school, everyone noticed that Natasha had a brand new walk. It was a strut that suggested I had bucket-loads of the confidence that most teenage girls inherently lack, but the truth was that it was the other way around. Walking that way made me feel like I could conquer the World.

Ten years later, 2004… An eating disorder had me in its clutches. I was on my way back from yet another visit to the GP, clutching yet another prescription for high-dosage antidepressants, when I realized that, in addition to all the stomach cramps and headaches and mental anguish I’d been experiencing over the past 5 years, my back ached. It ached because I’d lost my walk. I was hunched over, once again scrutinizing the ground, searching for something that wasn’t there, shuffling uncertainly like an OAP.

Six years later, 2010…The agent at the Plus Size Modeling agency has just told me I have the best walk of the day. I smile to myself, thinking that it’s just the way I usually walk, slowed down slightly as if to show off beautiful couture. In 2008, I waged war on the eating disorder that had robbed me of everything. I still don’t know where I found the strength but, somewhere along the line, THE STRUT returned, without me even noticing. ‘That guy is looking at you because you are SO hideous and fat’ became– ‘That guy is looking at you. You must look hot today. Crank up the strut and show him what you’ve got’.

My walk represents everything I am and everything I have conquered. I see some women looking at me sometimes as if to say ‘who does she think she is?’ The answer is — I think I am Natasha Devon and I’ve earned the right to feel proud.

If you would like to participate with future “What I Love About Me” features on Plus Size Models Unite, please e-mail the girls at nelizabethanna@aol.com. Or just comment below! Can’t wait to read your posts as well!