Happy Monday! Once again, apologies for being completely absent but I am all better and ready to go! So as some of you may know, I was at the Galway Designers and Bloggers showcase last night where I gave a five minute talk on self acceptance and body confidence. I was very nervous and didn't follow it word for word but I did it. Again, a huge congrats to Sorcha (Sorcha Style's) for her success. So for any of you who missed it, here are some pictures and the talk that I gave.
Sharon Dmake // Rebecca Casserly from Bec Boop Fashionista World // Myself // Sinead Reilly from This Petite Inferno
Good evening everyone and I would like to welcome you again to this evening’s show. I’d firstly like to thank Sorcha, the hostess of the show, for giving me this opportunity to talk about a topic that’s important to me. Excuse me if I sound a bit nervous but it’s been a while since I’ve been given the freedom of rambling on about something in front of people. My name is Shannon Barry and I am a fashion blogger, fashion student, retail assistant and an extreme fashion enthusiast. I’ve had my blog for just over a year and it goes by the name of “The Edge of Glamour”.Obviously, I live and breathe fashion.
I have been interested in fashion before I even knew I definitely was. When I was younger, I never knew that fashion offered a variety of interesting careers. I thought that saying “I want to be a fashion designer” was like saying “I want to be a princess”. To me it was a dream, a fantasy. I finally copped on when I was twelve and began to realise that fashion was an actual career that I could pursue. It also turned out that I was actually kind of good at it and something as simple as buying a magazine made my day.
As we all know, living as a human from the age of 12-16 is quite a fragile period in a person’s life. I’m not going to bore you with the things you already know about like puberty and popularity competitions because you’ve heard it all before. What I want to talk about is the thing that I think isn’t talked about enough. It’s also something that I talk about on my blog quite regularly. This doesn’t just apply to teens. It applies to everyone. I’m talking about the pressure to look good. To be on trend. To have all the latest clothes and gadgets. Why is it that we have programmed ourselves to constantly be unhappy with who we are and what we have to show for it. I know from my experience that I didn’t tell anyone about my interest in fashion until I actually started my course. I was ashamed because I didn’t look like the ideal woman who was a size 6 and woke up perfect. That’s what I learned from the magazines I bought every week. I was being told that I needed to look a certain way in order to be accepted in society.
Since I’ve started my course in fashion, I’ve copped on. I’ve learned that I can look however I want, whenever I want. I don’t let the magazines tell me how to look or how to live. But what about the people who truly believe that they aren’t good enough? Who’s going to tell them that they’re perfect the way they are and the only time they should ever change is when they are doing it for themselves? This is why I chose to talk about this topic. I added a stylist to my list of professions because I want to help people feel good about themselves and see that you don’t have to be a certain size to be fashionable. I’m a size 12 and I have no shame in it because it is a healthy size. But it’s known that fashion magazines and websites make out that being a size 10+ is a sin. And people who are naturally slim get loads of abuse as well. All that these magazines and websites do is tell us we’ll never be good enough no matter how we look.
I think that all of us in general need to start accepting ourselves and actually start believing that we are good enough. A couple of weeks ago in college, I was shown a short clip of a woman who was dubbed the ugliest woman in the world. Her name is Lizzie Valazquez and she has a rare disease that doesn’t allow her to put on any weight. She gave a speech about how she had to accept herself first before others started accepting her. People could see that she hated who she was and took advantage of that. But the second she realised that she was fine, just the way she was, they left her alone. Self acceptance is the way forward in fashion but some people may need more help than others. Don’t be afraid to give someone a compliment. Tell them their hair looks nice or that you like their shoes. Sometimes the smallest things can change how a person sees themselves.
I know I’m only one person but this is a subject that I am so passionate about and that I want to tackle head on. It’s why my blog is called what it is. I took inspiration from Lady Gaga because she is so comfortable in her own skin and does not care what anyone has to say about it. I’ve heard this saying from so many people but my mum always says to me that “it’s not what you wear, it’s how you wear it” and I think that we all need to start thinking like that. Fashion isn’t about having the most expensive clothes. It’s about style. Confidence and self belief are the best accessories to have. Wear what you want and be proud of it. All I want to do is help someone believe in themselves the way I have learned to. We always focus on our flaws but I think it’s due time that we start focussing on our good qualities. If I help just one person in my entire career, then everything was worth it.
Hopefully I haven’t bored you all too much and that you’ll start believing that you are good enough. Thank you for listening to my little speech and maybe this could be the start of a self acceptance.
Much Love,
Shannon.
xoxo
