Their Stories - Jessica Smith

27th April, 2017    |    By  AINTHOTClothing    |     8.2k

Jessica Smith has battled with Bulimia and self-body issues for over a decade. She was born without her left forearm and felt completely different when growing up. This “difference” though led her to representing her country in swimming, giving her the opportunity to travel the world. Something that may not have happened if she was born with both arms.


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Body Image Self esteem Eating Disorders

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Their Stories – Jessica Smith

There’s plenty of talk surrounding body image and body image issues, and we definitely like to blame the media for it. There’s no denying that we like to look good and feel good. We buy certain clothes, we go to the gym, we do our hair in certain ways, and even sunglasses are more than just items to block out the sun. But when this becomes a bit of an obsession, it can be damaging to our health.

I met up with Jessica Smith, who has overcome her battle with body image, and she’s here to talk about her story.

Tell us a bit about yourself.

“I’ve been working as a public speaker now for probably the last two years after battling with eating disorders and negative body image myself. After coming through that, after battling with that for more than a decade, I kind of have a responsibility to be a positive role model and to share my story. Hopefully, I can encourage other people to change their negative self-talk and to see themselves in a more positive way.”

[Music]

Growing up, I always knew that I was different. I was born with one arm, and then, as a toddler, I knocked boiling water on myself. I got burns to my neck and chest, so I think from a young age, I knew that I didn’t really fit in. I didn’t relate to the other kids, and so I had this heightened sense of awareness.

I’m kind of glad though that I didn’t lose my arm later in life. You know, I think there would have been a lot more, obviously, a lot more challenges. So, in that, I feel pretty lucky. But then, you know, if I didn’t have one arm, if I didn’t have a disability, I wouldn’t have been able to travel the world with swimming and things like that, so I certainly wouldn’t take it back.

[Music]

I grew up in a really sporty family. I have three younger brothers, and there was no option; I had to do some sort of sport. Team sport was something that I didn’t feel comfortable with because I had such a negative internal dialogue growing up, telling myself that I was a failure at everything that I did. So, you know, team sports were really hard because I felt like I was always letting other people down.

So for me, swimming was something that was just for me. You know, in many ways, it was an escape because I could just put my head under the water and not have to face what was going on at school, what was going on at home. So I spent a lot of time in the pool, and obviously that led to many hours of training.

I started competing from the age of 10, and I first represented Australia at the age of 13. I competed internationally for the next 10 years and represented Australia at the Athens 2000 Paralympics and the 2004 Paralympics.

You know, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to look good and take care of yourself and be presentable. That’s really important in life and in who we are and how we measure success and things like that. But, in order to do that and to have a healthy, balanced life, you need to just be who you are and remember it’s all right to want to look good. It’s natural for us.

If you want to get in contact with Jess at all, by the way, her website’s there, and her Facebook’s right there.

So remember, every barrier can actually be a blessing in disguise. Jess may never have represented Australia if she had both arms.