BOITUMELO MABELE

KHOMBISILE SIYAYA

Hi, my name is Boitumelo Mabele, from Evaton in the Vaal Triangle, I am 22years old and I am currently a Marketing intern. So basically, I am a poetess, Iam an aspiring actress, I am an activist, an advocate for gender basedviolence, and also, I am a plus-sized model. So from my childhood, I havealways wanted to be a model and actress,but because I was a victim of bullyingback in primary school mostly because of my weight, which led to me becomingintroverted. I felt like the world was shutting me out on a lot of things. I believedthat society did not accept us as people, as women who are supposed to be inthe industry.UPCOMING MAG | 52

I thought that only slimmer ladies could become models, until I watched a movie called PHAT GIRLS, starring Monique… this gave me that sense of confidence and comfort that I was not the only plussized person in the world. You can be whoever and whatever you want to be, as long as you love yourself and accept yourself for who you are. So after watching that movie, I went outside and looked at my shadow in the night, and I saw this beautiful big person and thought to myself “Is this really me?” I looked damn beautiful. I asked myself how could I have deprived myself off so many opportunities, happiness, making friends by thinking that I am not worthy an not good enough. Since then, I stopped listening to what people had to say about me, I am going to love myself, I am going to do poetry and tell people to allow themselves to be who they are. After all of that, I began to be more interested in modeling, especially considering that my cousin is a model,