Defiant plus-size blogger calls out trolls who branded her 'a whale'
21 September 2019, 11:07 | Updated: 13 November 2019, 08:20
The influencer is inspiring others to be body confident, whatever their size or shape
Plus-size blogger Callie Thorpe, 30, has spoken out about the online comments she has received with trolls calling her "a whale" and that she should be "tied to a car and dragged along like a dog to lose weight".
The size 24 star, from Newport, Wales, who has 232,000 Instagram followers, has refused to let the remarks get her down and instead, promotes herself as the 'Queen of Confidence'.
She has talked about how on what should be the happiest day of her life she was still trolled.
"A person trolled a picture of me in my wedding dress – I thought people would at least give me a break on my wedding day – they said my husband will be burying me in six years' time."
The abuse she has received isn't just online either.
She recalls how five years ago, while she was enjoying a day out with her husband Dan, a group of men shouted "oh look, he's dragged a whale back from the beach".
Reflecting on that incident now, Callie said: "It's just something I’ve had to get used to because people think it’s acceptable to do things like that."
"I’ve had to learn to shut that kind of messaging off because it really affects my mental health when I read things like that.
"And when you read stuff about things you already have insecurities about, it can be extremely triggering.
"People will go to really horrible lengths to say cruel things to people and I don’t understand why anyone would say anything like that – but I try and have some understanding of it.
"There’s obviously some hurt going on with them because I don’t know why anyone would say that."
Although she's now devoted to empowering other plus-size women to enjoy fashion, Callie actually started off writing a weight loss blog where she wrote about her body hang-ups.
"So I started an online diet diary as a way to keep track of and have other people put pressure on me and I somehow thought that would help me lose weight.
"I swiftly realised that was a very negative thing to be part of and it wasn’t really helping me or anybody else in any way. I got some really unhealthy habits and disordered eating from it.
"I started to get obsessed with the numbers each week. And then when I didn't lose weight, I’d feel really pressured with everyone knowing that I was on a diet."
Callie has instead turned her attention to becoming an inspiration for plus size women and has gone on to create a blog and post body-promoting images on her Instagram.
She says: "If I’m going to be called an ‘influencer’ than I want to influence with purpose and want people to leave my page feeling good, not bad."
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