After battling severe anxiety and depression, and surviving anorexia which nearly killed her, a former Miss Teen Canada-World pageant finalist is now determined to help others through mental illness.
In addition to sharing her battle with anorexia on YouTube, St. Albert’s 18 year-old Vanessa Peynenburg’s has launched a “Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful” campaign which has her organizing various photo shoots using other survivors from all walks of life as models.
“It’s to show people have overcome adversity and how they found beauty from their situations,” she explains. “I know what it’s like to be in those situations, to struggle through those things and to come back on the other side.”
“It might not be the exact same story, but it’s something that just gives people hope and give them some optimism when they’re going through it,” Peynenburg adds.
According to psychologist Melinda Banszky Le Fevre, there are real benefits to seeing that you’re not alone.
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“When you start to share your experience with other people, you will find that other people have taken the same journey,” she says. “You can learn from them, and develop some coping strategies.”
This realization that there were other people going through the same thing helped Shaylyn Hunter, now participating in the campaign. Hunter hopes she can now help others.
“I hope it makes people feel more comfortable about coming out with what they’re dealing with or accepting that they have struggles that they’re dealing with.”
Another woman taking part in the campaign, Kirsty Fulton, reveals that she was bullied badly in school and would like this campaign to make girls realize that an experience like that will not define them.
“You are beautiful the way you are, and you don’t have to listen to school bullies,” Fulton says. “You can be stronger than that.”
Survivor Laura-Leigh Blackmore believes sharing these personal struggles may give strength to other women who need support getting through their hardships.
“I grew up with wonderful friends, wonderful family and I still ended up in a domestic violence situation. And even with all the love and support that some don’t have, I knew that I had to find the strength within myself to get ahead.”
“There’s a lot of social messages that say you aren’t good the way you are, so it has to come from within our inner self,” says Banszky Le Fevre. “And a belief in ourselves that we are worthy of being loved.”
Peynenburg’s photo shoots and video will eventually become part of a documentary, which she hopes will be shown in schools to students.
She’s still looking for volunteers to help shoot and edit her documentary.
For more information, you can visit her website.
With files from Su-Ling Goh, Global News
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