Let’s start with.. I was in no way, shape or form a confident person in the past. Many will know me now and think that there’s no possible way that I’ve ever been insecure etc.. But believe me I was. In Secondary school I wasn’t very confident. I found I doubted myself with intelligence, ability and I also doubted my physical appearance.
I personally believed I wouldn’t achieve above a pass in all my subjects at school and really did not think I was intelligent at all. When I completed GCSE’s and passed in all my subjects, I started to have confidence in my intelligence, this also helped me in making a decision to go to College. Whilst in College, I thought it was exceptionally harder than School and I again struggled with confidence, however I struggled with confidence in only some subjects and not all, which was a major improvement. Having passed those, I struggled with making the decision of going to University, as I believed I’d struggle with that a massive amount, however it’s been extremely achievable and I believe with maturity also comes a lot more intelligence, and I’ve realised I should have believed in myself a lot more growing up, as the more you grow up the more you understand. In terms of building your confidence, if you’re not sure you can do something always push yourself to do it and you’ll be absolutely surprised with yourself, everything is more achievable than anyone thinks and YOU can do it.
Being confident within your physical appearance is quite difficult in this day and age, with social media, models, body shaming and etc. There’s also a lot of pressure on females to look a certain way (not that there isn’t pressure on men, there’s just not as much). Physical appearance was something I found the hardest to overcome, whilst in Secondary school I was bullied for my appearance, this also tarnished my confidence as a whole. On the day of Prom, I swore to myself I would make sure I looked absolutely amazing so I wouldn’t be remembered as how I felt, and I’m proud to say on the day of prom I’m glad with how I looked. When I turned sixteen, I matured slightly and when I started college people found me more ‘attractive’. At this time, I had also started modelling for the first time after having tried for years and years beforehand. I started to take more notice of my appearance, wearing clothes that looked better for my figure, learning more about hair and make up, I invested in contact lenses which I also think helped with my physical appearance as I never really suited glasses. Once I started taking more care and making more of an effort on my physical appearance I started to become more confident and that also made me more happy, and happiness draws attention to you, people then start to notice the changes you’ve made. In terms of physical appearance, make and effort with how you look, take time to see what you like and what suits you and you’ll become a lot more happier with the way you look, this will make you much happier and also build your confidence. My advice would be to love yourself regardless of what others think of you as those people won’t be around forever and their opinion of you certainly doesn’t matter. With loving yourself comes happiness and self confidence.
Hope this helps!
Nai x
NAIMÁH MCKIE 