No stranger to speaking out, Married At First Sight star Jessika Power has hit out at her body shamers.
Taking to Instagram to share two revealing bikini shots, she said she believes people are picking on her because she is the “mean girl” from television.
Jessika wrote: “So this year I’ve been judged, mocked, insulted, slut shamed, been on the receiving end of endless death threats, violent threats and been told to kill my self endless times.
“But the one thing that stood out to me and affected me the most was the outrageous and horrific body shaming I received online from one bad photo – people even made pages dedicated to this photo so others could join in on ripping my confidence to shreds while giggling behind their keyboards.”
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She continued in the lengthy post: “I would expect this sort of disgusting behavior from a bunch of teens but I was receiving this from women as old as 50!! Mothers who had daughters of their own even.
“I’ve since worked hard on my body but no amount of exercise or good eating I do can take away the mental damage I received from all of the online ridiculing.
“To this day I don’t like to wear short-shorts, let alone the bikini I’m wearing in these unedited photographs. I like to be in a comfortable environment with people I trust so my paranoia doesn’t tell me constantly ‘everyone’s looking at you Jess, cover up cover up!’
“I wanted to share these photos today because, even though it’s scary, I shouldn’t have ever been made to feel low about my body or self conscious about how I look – NO ONE SHOULD!
“It’s not cool to be nasty or unkind and we have young girls and women out there who are feeling exactly the same way I did and that just sucks!
“You are beautiful no matter your size, shape, hair color even the color of your skin! If you’re comfortable in the way you look then stay like that and don’t feed into the negative comments! A lot of what we as humans now view as ‘beautiful’ is unachievable because photoshop doesn’t exists in real day-to-day life and you can’t always be in the “perfect” lighting while holding the ‘perfect’ angle.
“I have stretch marks and cellulite, I have a little tummy because I love to over-indulge but this is me and I’m finally able to say, ‘I’m happy with how I look’, because I feel comfortable. “Please guys, I know it’s fun to pick on the ‘mean girl’ from a TV show but just think of the impact your words can have on others sometimes.”
Unusually, one of her arch-enemies of MAFS took to the comments section to defend her.
Elizabeth Sobinoff wrote: “Jess, you look absolutely amazing. This is the thing with social media people think that they know you and that’s it’s fun to make someone be ashamed of their body. Because of how you were on a tv show? How is it acceptable to rip into someone’s appearance because they don’t like someone’s actions?
“Actions and appearances are two different things. Imagine if you dared to say something about their bodies or their daughters bodies? I remember at the start of the show everyone was saying you were the pretty bubbly blonde then suddenly turning on you through commenting on your appearance? You are absolutely beautiful.
“Head high honey, you are cute, more than cute you are beautiful. Literally they going to hate because it’s easy for them. Fix that crown.”
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