A PLUS-SIZE beauty queen has shared how her childhood bullies helped motivate her.
The curvy influencer defied the haters who nicknamed her "flabby whale."
Abigail Hill, 31, explained that she feels empowered and beautiful when competing in pageants.
The U.K. native, who works as a model and retail manager, is currently preparing for the Miss Supranational pageant on Saturday.
She shared that she wants to become the first plus-sized queen to represent England.
"My dress size has no impact on my ability to perform the duties that come with holding a national, or even international pageant title," Abigail said.
Read More On Body Shapes
Hundreds of new-build houses ‘at risk of crumbling due to low quality mortar’
While the trail-blazing beauty queen admits to feeling "daunted" on the pageant circuit at first, she has since become at home on stage.
"Doing pageants has made me become a lot more body confident. My self-esteem took a knock, and I was bullied throughout school for my size and pageants have helped improve me so much," she said.
Abigail continued: "It [was] typical school kids finding someone a bit different and bullying them for it. I'd get the usual jibes about my size and [I] was a bit taller too, so my nickname was flabby whale."
The influencer admits to struggling with the hateful comments as a child but soon grew to love her look.
Most read in Lifestyle
Paul O’Grady carried on horse drawn carriage as tearful husband cuddles dog
Man U & City fans revolt over 'crazy' campaign to make clubs ditch badges
Fans stunned as Coventry KEEPER 'does an Alisson' to score injury-time goal
Royal Navy engineer found dead after losing dream home over fence row
After learning to embrace her curves, Abigail soon became comfortable wearing swimwear in public, something she had never done before.
She detailed: "If I could have told my younger self this is what I would be doing, I wouldn’t have believed it. I never thought I would be on this route.
"Wearing a bikini would have been out of the question when I was younger," Abigail revealed.
The beauty queen also spoke about the obligation she feels to represent other plus-size people.
"It's important to me to keep showing up and being the role model I needed to see when I was younger – I was influenced to enter my first pageant by seeing a plus-size girl come second," she said.
Abigail explained: "Despite the fact pageants have existed and evolved for decades, no country has ever been represented by a plus-size contestant on an international level.
"As we see more diversity across brands such as Victoria’s Secret and Sports Illustrated, I would love to see that change reflected in pageants as well," she added.
Abigail's modeling portfolio, which includes collaborations with brands such as SimplyBe, Barbour, and Allure Bridals, is proof that times are changing.
However, she revealed that she still receives hate from online trolls about her appearance.
"I get the occasional anonymous troll on social media saying that I'm promoting obesity and I'm promoting people to be unhealthy which I'm definitely not," she shared.
However, the professional model doesn't let the hate get to her anymore.
"I just brush these off and don’t get into social media arguments.
"I do get the majority of positive comments and it's really nice to see different body types," Abigail concluded.
Source: Read Full Article