Former Australia’s Next Top Model star Taylah Roberts has taken to social media to share a realistic snap of herself in a changing room as a way of encouraging women to accept their bodies.
Taylah posted the photo of herself to her 45,000 followers on Instagram, saying there was a time when seeing the raw image would have made her ‘break down and cry’ – however, today, she takes a kinder view.
The photo shows the 24-year-old standing in her underwear under harsh fluorescent lights of a store changing room.
‘I’m just gonna leave it here with the intent of normalising flaws in the hopes that someone will see this at the right time and know they are beautiful too, no matter how you look in an awfully lit change room,’ Taylah captioned the post.
Former Australia’s Next Top Model star Taylah Roberts (pictured) recently took to Instagram to share this realistic snap of herself in her underwear
The 24-year-old model said there would have been a time when seeing herself under harsh fluorescent lights of a store changing room would have made her cry
Thousands have since seen the post and many commenters have shared how inspired they felt by Taylah’s brave stand.
‘I gotta [sic] say this photo really helped me in literally two minutes,’ one person wrote.
‘I always criticise myself and try and better myself but I still do it. This post made me think that wow other girls have curves and we don’t all have to be a certain way.’
Another said: ‘Thank you! Trying clothes on in changing rooms is just so horrendous!’
‘Thank you,’ a third said. ‘I’ve cried too many times in the change room. Not anymore.’
The model said she shared the realistic snap as a way of ‘normalising’ what women’s bodies look like
The model’s most recent snap comes on the heels of a raw before and after photo she shared on Instagram ahead of Sydney Fashion Week.
The side-by-side images showed a throwback image of a much-younger Taylah ‘riddled with insecurity’ as well as a photo of herself as she is now.
‘I feel blessed to have almost fully recovered from this dark place I once called home, but I still get glimpses of it and it’s usually around this time of year. Fashion week,’ she said.
The model recently took to Instagram to share a throwback photo of her body (left) as well as a snap of herself as she is now (right)
‘All I see in the photo on the left is sadness, exhaustion, insecurity and lack of worth beyond size,’ she said describing the image of herself wearing pink lingerie.’
Taylah went on to say she felt an internal pressure to keep her weight down and said she was ‘terrified that in an instant my dreams would be ripped away from me if the number on a measuring tape had increased by half an inch’.
She said she contemplated smoking so she wouldn’t be tempted by sweets, and constantly compared herself to other girls in the competitive industry.
The model previously shared there was a time when she contemplated taking up smoking as a way to keep her from being tempted by sweets
‘Am I not pretty enough, I must not be thin enough, I’m definitely not good enough,’ she said were often thoughts she felt during her career.
Taylah went on to say: ‘After years of feeling unworthy and left with a lot of work to do to get to the place I am now (pictured on the right) I’ll take my health, happiness and my size 12/14 a** over EVER feeling like that again!’
She used the hashtags ‘mental health’ and ‘ED (eating disorder) recovery’ in the post’s lengthy caption.
I’ll take my health, happiness and my size 12/14 a** over EVER feeling like that again!,’ the model declared on the Instagram post
The images, which have been seen seen by thousands, have earned her an outpouring of support for her ‘real and raw’ stance.
‘You are what our little ones need to look up to. Thank you for being so raw and so real,’ said one.
‘It’s so easy to turn a blind eye to this, I’m so glad you’re making people see the reality,’ said another.
‘It doesn’t have to be like that and I’m so glad we’re getting to a more inclusive place, but wow we still have such a long way to go.’