How model Mina Gerges turned body shaming comments into a mission of advocacy
“These mean comments no longer make me feel bad. To me, they tell me that I’m doing something right.”
In the second installment of the CBC Creator Network series "The Bigger Issue", host Shivani Persad talks to Canadian plus-size model and body neutrality advocate Mina Gerges about his experience with body shaming online, and how he "turned his sadness into a mission."
"There was a point where these comments destroyed my life," Gerges says of his experience on social media. "Now I think about what kinds of videos and images my younger self needed …. How can I create something that would have helped my younger self love his body?"
"When people see a fat guy like me in a speedo, and I'm wearing them and I'm looking confident and I'm feeling good — that challenges the way that people are used to seeing bigger bodies," he says. Watch the video for more from Mina on how his experience with cyberbullying ignited a call to advocacy.
If you're experiencing cyberbullying, here are some resources that may help:
