• By Shapermint Team
Janet a Shapermint Gal

When it comes to beauty, we are bombarded with the idea that solely our bodies define who we are.

Every day, insecurity grows exponentially because the media gets to decide what beauty is. They’re constantly trying to instill standards that stray away from what’s actually beautiful.

But we’re not just going to stand by and watch.

Luckily, there are women who have made it their mission to uplift others and who are spreading word of the things that really matter – not only forin women, but forin every human being.

If you’re one of the women who believes beauty is about our willingness to be whom we are, then we recommend you watch this video.

Janet, a Shapermint Gal who has overcome body issues that once put her life in danger, is now sharing what helped her overcome this difficult period and is now embracing her true self.


Once you start embracing who you are, whether it’s with a little boost from friends, family, or anyone else, that’s when you start shining and radiating beauty.


Transcript:

I’m Janet Conroy-Quirk, and I am originally from New York. I grew up in the Bronx and lived in Massachusetts for a while.

I see somebody who probably doesn’t look like what a lot of people think of as beautiful. I see someone who has her own idea of beauty and is happy in life and happy to represent people who look different from the norm. As a child I was a pretty active kid, I loved swimming and gymnastics and things like that. I loved doing sports, I wouldn’t say I excelled at any of them, but I liked doing them. As I reached puberty, I was one of those girls that kind of matured a little early, which is confusing. And I think it’s very hard as a woman who is not yet a woman, if that makes sense. When you’re 11 or 12 and all of a sudden you have this body that looks like you’re 16, 17, 18. It’s very, very, very difficult. I think it can be damaging. I think for a long time it was damaging for me. And I went through a lot of struggles with that, but I’m glad to say that those struggles are resolved for the most part.

So, at the time when I was most struggling I think was in college. I have kind of stopped eating and was just really not taking care of myself. Ultimately, what made me get better was my family and friends who just kept asking me about it and kept pushing me to get help.

I did lose a lot of weight. I had people telling me how great I looked. And they had no idea that every day I was worried I was gonna die of gastric rupture or some heart complication or something that could’ve happened.

Beauty comes from an openness and a willing to be who somebody is. I think some of the most beautiful women I know… it’s not so much that their hair and makeup and outfit is always perfect, it’s more just that they are genuinely happy to see other people, that they want good things for other people.

I’ve become the most part of who I am in the past year, I would say. I’m 38 and I decided a few years ago to leave my social work career which was wonderful, and I loved it and I’m glad that I helped people. I decided to come back to acting and performing, and now I found this body-positivity world and I just feel better about whom I am. I feel like I’m setting the rules for how I’m going to feel every day.