00:00I was born and raised in Ghana, but I actually didn't feel like I was from there because
00:05I always looked different.
00:07My parents are divorced.
00:08I grew up with my mom and daddy's from Lebanon.
00:10My brows are actually the one Middle Eastern thing that I have and they are there so happy
00:16and so strong.
00:16I love them thick.
00:18I always say I like my brows as thick as my curves.
00:21All my siblings are gorgeous and skinny, so I was like the little chubby girl and was
00:27always like, oh, the one with the big cheeks.
00:29Bullying is accepted in the African culture.
00:31I became very aware of my body because of other people.
00:34All my friends were different sizes, but I wasn't really aware of size.
00:37I was just like, backless tops are in vogue, and then someone's just like, haha, you know,
00:41you can't wear that.
00:42Your friends can wear that, but you can't wear that because you have back rolls or you have
00:46arms.
00:46The fact that no one defended me helped me understand that that was accepted.
00:50I don't want women, even young girls, to grow up emotionally holding all that stuff in the
00:56way I did.
00:57I just want people to know all sides of me.
01:00The bad stuff, the good stuff, because then when they see me here and I'm all confident
01:06and I love myself, I want them to understand that it wasn't easy and it still isn't easy
01:10and they're not alone.
01:12Confidence isn't great if it's not unapologetic.
01:15The beauty about confidence is there is no room for opinions.
01:17There is no room for you to even waver in it.
01:21I think my creative side reveals really, truly how I think.
01:24When I paint or when I, you know, take pictures, you'll know how I feel.
01:28You'll know what the inside of me looks like.
01:31Being a part of the European Waxstress Society just felt like an amazing energy.
01:35We're all confident in our own ways.
01:37I walk around a lot of times without makeup on and it's one of those things where I had
01:42to really understand that confidence wasn't about pretending to be something or hoping
01:47to be something else.
01:47And it also didn't mean you have to love every single thing about you.
01:51It's just the world gets what I give them every day.
