She’s been Australia’s sunny sweetheart ever since she landed on reality TV series The Bachelor in 2014. But don’t underestimate Sam Frost.
WATCH: Sam Frost for WHO’s Most Beautiful People 2020
Her girl-next-door charm belies a steely resolve to overcome life’s hurdles. A woman fiercely driven to succeed at whatever she turns her mind to. Reality TV star – tick. Radio show host – tick. Actress on Home and Away – tick. And perhaps most important of all: powerful mental health advocate – a big tick.
“When you’re presented with opportunities, all you can do is put your head down, work as hard as you can and stay grounded,” Frost, who turns 31 on April 4, tells WHO. And that’s what she’s done.
Last year, she launched the mental health platform, Believe by Sam Frost, which she set up with her sister Kristine, to encourage people to share their stories. Often, she says, those battling mental illness feel isolated and alone. They wanted to provide “a safe place” where people can go “to feel understood and know that they’re not alone.”
“People just want to feel connected,” Frost explains. “We want to feel like people understand our pain. And I want to help.”
Frost is candid and honest about her lifelong struggles with depression and anxiety, which bubbled to the surface after two reality show break-ups – first with The Bachelor’s Blake Garvey in 2014 and then The Bachelorette winner Sasha Mielczarek in 2016 – and the intense scrutiny she faced when she took on a radio show with Rove McManus.
“For me, depression has been something that I’ve battled my whole life and I think that’s certainly heightened when you go through something publicly and you just feel that immense pressure,” she says. “You can feel it in your chest.”
Back then, she was young and vulnerable and she let the critics get under her skin. “I used to criticise myself heavily and so everything the critics were saying, I was thinking myself,” she recalls. “It just felt toxic and negative from inside my mind.” These days, she thinks ‘to hell with the critics’. “I’m just going to be myself,” she says.
“I’ve come to peace with the fact it’s fine if you don’t like me because I have so many beautiful people who are kind to me. I’m surrounded by love, and so I just focus on that.”
Frost, from Lilydale in Melbourne’s outer suburbs, says she was “very naive” when she appeared on The Bachelor. “Honestly, I cringe thinking about myself [back then],” she says.
“I’m like, ‘Samantha, what were you thinking?’ It baffles me that I even did it in the first place.”
But she doesn’t regret trying to find love on a TV show, saying, “I wouldn’t have learnt the lessons I did had I not had that experience.”
With maturity, Frost has come to accept her mistakes. “I’ve had relationships that break down,” she reflects.
“I am just like many others and make mistakes and poor decisions, but instead of beating yourself up about it, I always say, ‘What is the universe trying to teach me?’”
For more of our chat with Sam, pick up a copy of Who’s Most Beautiful People Issue out now.
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