Leave whatever you’re doing now, including reading this, and look in the mirror, tell your body “Thank you” for the millions of things it does for you every day without being asked, and remember, your body tells a story, but it’s not necessarily one that can be measured by eye balls. Done? Now repeat after me: “I AM ENOUGH.”
Empowering others has always been one of Pulse’s core values, and as a way to spread the message of body positivity among all of us and to motivate everyone to be unapologetically themselves and confident in their own skin, below we’ve listed three Arab talents who will motivate and inspire you to love yourself photoshop-free right on time for summer.
Meet the artist with a passion for donuts, life and a rounded figurine
She was born in 1970, in the village of Deirkoubel in Lebanon, and had a childhood notable for her love of food. Lebanese artist Ghida Younes later started a job with Leo Burnett in Beirut in 1997 and became creative director of the Beirut office where she remained until 2010. She left the company to pursue a screenwriting course at the New York Film Academy, after which she returned to Lebanon and produced her own TV show. In 2013, she began working on the ‘My Fat Lady’ project, a series of illustrated paintings with a full-grown woman with lots of curves and a fun attitude, who she describes as her alter ego, to create a tribute to roundness and women of all shapes and sizes.
Meet the first Arab plus-sized model
Ameni Esseibi, a model of French-Tunisian descent, who likes to call herself a ‘body positivity advocate’ as her Instagram account indicates, never thought about modeling when growing up. She’s one of a few plus size models in the Arab world, as finding work if you’re bigger than a UK size 14 is incredibly difficult. In September 2017, Ameni Esseibi arrived in Dubai and began to carve herself a career in modeling, setting up meetings with leading agencies across the city. It worked.
Meet the pioneer who celebrates the female form through fashion
Dima Ayad is a pioneer of plus-size and modest women in the Middle East. Her eponymous brand is one of the few to create for plus-size women and makes clever use of the trendiest fabrics. Ayad is also the founder of DAC Communications, a Dubai-based consultancy specializing in PR, marketing, social media content and branding strategies to help businesses across the region reach their full potential.
