The Canary Islands model Susana Bianca has visited Lanzarote to give a talk at the 'Las Salinas' institute in Arrecife. The well-known influencer and first "curvy" fashion model in warm fashion in Gran Canaria, has given an interview on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero, to talk about the fatphobia that exists in society.
The Canary Islander has highlighted her work as the host of interesting talks in various schools in the Canary Islands. She started giving talks to adults and now, "I have started doing it for teenagers". An exciting initiative with which "many children come out strengthened", she added proudly. On some occasions, some parents have been very grateful for the model's interventions. "You have changed my daughter's life"; some parents told me in one of the talks in a school", she recalled.
The model has highlighted how she experienced the hardest part of her career as a model, which was in her adolescence. "In that stage my problems started, I felt like the ugly duckling", she revealed. At that time, she was a size 36 and measured 1.80 and was very sporty, although for those responsible for modeling agencies and castings she did not fit the profile. "Every time I went to a test they told me I was fat and that if I wanted to fit in and work, I needed to lose weight", she pointed out. In addition, at that time she also suffered harassment from her classmates because of her figure. "I started to suffer bullying at school"; she recalled.
All this, only for having a "different and curvy" body, she stressed. "They told me I was fat and called me a footballer", she recalled about her school days in adolescence.
Two reasons why she began to "obsess" about weight and entered a spiral of "anorexia and bulimia" disorder. Paying attention to the comments of those around her, she began to have an unhealthy relationship with food. "I was eating salad and vomiting all day", she said.
"I listened to what they told me, I thought it was all true", she pointed out. She began to change her perception of her body, becoming a "insecure" person, who looked in the mirror and did not like herself", she revealed. The way she was treated in the world of fashion, in which she "wanted to fit in", was decisive and marked those years of her life. "They rejected me and told me I was disgusting", she added.
In her work as a model, she recalled that, despite giving her the opportunity, they always commented that she "had to lose weight" to be able to dedicate herself to it. When she went on a catwalk, she often did it almost without eating, a situation that led her to experience distressing moments. "It has happened to me to fall and faint on the catwalk for not having eaten all day", she said. In addition, she had to do it pretending to be safe. "On the outside I seemed safe and empowered on the catwalk and I didn't show it, on the inside"
A thought that changed years later. Bianca took a radical turn in her life and "began to love myself", she said. "I turned everything I saw in the mirror into a virtue", she told listeners. From her experience, the Canary Islander has advised all teenagers that they should "learn to accept and love themselves, without obsessing about fitting into society".
"You have to learn to accept and love yourself, without obsessing about fitting into society"
The important thing socially is to know that in the real world "diversity exists" and that is how the model transmits it. Although she knows that "it is difficult", in her opinion she emphasizes that people "should not waste time trying to change to fit" in a social cannon. She has learned that "she should not change" so that "they call her to dance or model", she said.
The Gran Canaria Fashion Show, at first I didn't want to do it, I thought they were going to reject me, I was the plus size model in my day, I've been doing it for five years now/ I'm writing a book, I started in confinement, I have it stalled, but my idea is to release the book as soon as possible, this year or next year.
She wants the term "curvy" to disappear
During the course of the interview, the Canary Islands model makes a call for "labels on models" to disappear in relation to clothing sizes for fashion shows. "I would like the labels to be removed", she stressed. As a main argument, the model has highlighted the differentiation that is made in modeling between models according to their size. "We don't tell thin models that they are thin, we just call them models", she stressed.
She mentions another of the main sources that feeds criticism for bodies: social networks. One of the networks that hosts offensive comments is Instagram. Bianca makes it clear that it is one of the causes for a person to lose self-esteem. "Social networks and filters also do a lot of damage to self-esteem", she said. What surprises the Canary Islands model the most are the criticisms of women towards other women who continue to see each other every day. "Women are the ones who criticize other women the most, and then I see people with such a dark light, if we already crush each other so much...", she stressed.
"Not to mention the business of aesthetic touch-ups", something that she "does not criticize", but emphasizes the importance of being responsible with those changes in the body. "I think aesthetic touch-ups are fine if it is to feel better or highlight your beauty, but not to obsess over "I want to be like another person", she pointed out.
