Curve columnist Callie Thorpe tells it like it is

We visit our curve columnist Callie at home and find out how she became the poster-girl for body confidence that she is. Check out her cute kitties too!

By now you’ve probably seen and loved our new curve columnist Callie Thorpe. Callie caught our attention after she won our Curve Columnist competition last year, and has been an amazing ambassador for the body confidence movement, which Marie Claire are proud to be a part of.

We went to visit Callie at home, to find out what motivates and inspires her. Here she is in her own words.

"I was actually not a big child. I put on weight around six or seven, when I had severe asthma and I was put on steroids and the problem with my weight began then. I had issues with appetite and obviously steroids cause you to gain quite a substantial amount of weight. As far as I can remember in my teenage and adult years, I’ve always been plus sized. 

People have this perception that you can’t do things when you’re plus sized, but you can. You just have to put your mind to it and just realize that you’re like everyone else, you deserve to have a life like everybody else and that not every plus size person is at home crying about how big they are. 

Some people actually like the way they look and that’s hard for other people to get their heads around, but that is the reality for some people. Not for everybody, but it is for some people. It took me a while to get to this place but this is how I feel, and I’m a happy person and I want to live the best life I can.

You can’t have a positive life or be happy if you don’t love yourself and self-love is so important. You only have one body and you only have one life and if you don’t live it because of how you think you look you’re just missing out on so much. I regret all the years I lost where I didn’t do things. When I didn’t dress how I wanted to and I didn’t enjoy life because I worried about my size.

You have hundreds of things that make you a great person, and that’s not just about how you look. I hope that my column will help you look wonderful and fashionable and enjoy everything that everybody else enjoys. Your size doesn’t have to hinder your involvement in fashion, and your self-expression. 

You should truly be happy in yourself and in your skin."

Tweet us about what you'd like to see Callie writing about using the hashtag #MCcurve, @marieclaireuk and @calliethorpe.