People Laughed At My Weight but Then I Became a Model

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**People Laughed At My Weight but Then I Became a Model** is the 24th episode of ACTUALLY HAPPENED.

## Original description

This is Margaret. She has a very inspiring story for those who are fat-shamed and feel miserable about it. The thing is that a couple of years ago, she was famous at her school as Fat Maggie, yet now everyone wants to date her. Unbelievably, she didn’t need to lose a kilo to see this turnaround. Here is the story of her life.

She has always been overweight. Her family, all in all, is quite a slender one, and no one actually knows why she was born plump. They thought it would disappear as the years went by. It didn’t. She didn’t overeat, and was a very active girl. She’d been involved in lots of sports ever since she was a small child. Her parents thought that maybe she had some intestinal or hormonal problems, and took her to the doctors, but they came up with nothing. Then they gave up. She wasn’t actually suffering because of her health, and didn’t consider it a “condition”.

When she went to school, she stood out of the crowd at once. You know how cruel kids can be, and they sure did mock her. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t know that apart from being a “lump of fat,” as they called her, she also had a great deal of muscle. She already did rugby and karate, and after a couple of broken noses her classmates learned to show some respect towards “Big M”.

Things weren’t that bad really. Slowly but surely, Margaret became part of the group, and everybody respected her – although she had no idea whether this was because they liked her, or because they knew she could beat them up. She even made some friends and felt happy enough, until she had to go to high school where she didn’t know anyone. That meant starting all over again. She still had some hope that that everyone would be more mature by this stage, and they wouldn’t mind her looks.

She was both right and wrong. On the one hand, no one called her a lump of fat anymore. On the other, instead of insulting her directly, they talked about her behind her back and gave her disgusted looks. Those were times when working out had become very trendy, and everyone spent their evenings in the gym. Margaret was still doing lots of sports, and a couple of times she tried to explain to people that she wasn’t simply a lazy coach potato – she was actually an athlete. But they didn’t believe her.

They became accustomed to the way she looked, but unfortunately she still wasn’t able to socialise much. She was called “Fat Maggie” and became one of the school’s freaks. It’s sad, but true. The worst thing was that at some point, everyone started dating, and she was totally excluded from the process. She knew a couple of boys liked her, but they would never approach her – because who would date Fat Maggie? The thing was, despite being overweight she had always had a well-trained body, and more importantly a pretty face, so she found the whole situation extremely unfair.

She remembers the day that changed her life very clearly. One of Margaret’s cousins had ambitions to become a model, and she went to a casting organized by a big scouting agency. She was nervous and asked Margaret to go with her. Margaret thought about how she would look among those fitness bunnies, and felt pretty miserable. But her cousin clearly needed support. So when they arrived, she went into the audience hall nearly at once while she was waiting for her in the hallway. Suddenly a woman with the agency badge came to Margaret and asked if she was waiting for the casting as well. “Who, me? No, of course not, I’m here with my cousin.” “Would you like to try?” She laughed. “Me, a model? Can’t you see I’m overweight?” She smiled and answered “Have you ever heard of plus-size modelling?”

This was the phrase that changed her life forever. She actually didn’t believe her, but as she was already there, she decided to give it a try. Everyone who was doing the casting became very interested when they saw her. “What a pretty girl! Nice curves!” She had a couple of shots taken, and they said she was a natural. Fat Maggie, with an exquisite hairdo and makeup, advertising evening dresses! No way! She started taking modelling classes at the same agency and believe it or not, after a couple of months she had already landed two contracts!

The best part of it was when her pic was posted as an ad for a big shop in her local mall. You should have seen the faces of her classmates! It turned out that with a bit of makeup and expensive clothes, Margaret stopped being a fat outcast and became an attractive young woman. Obviously, her popularity rocketed, and everyone wanted to make friends with her or go on a date. But you know what? She had lots of interesting work ahead, seeing the world and making new friends. She still studies at that school and works at the same time, and she has learned a very important thing that she wants to share with you: There is a world out there that’s ready to accept you, you just need to take a step forward.