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Speaking of Curves: Get to Know the Next Chapter for Plus Model, Rosie Mercado!
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Oct 31, 2024
Heyyy boo! Happy Thursday! What are you up to at 12pm EST? Join us as we chat with an OG in the plus size fashion space. Rosie Mercado is a model, actress, host, speaker, and NOW? An AUTHOR! In our latest Speaking of Curves Series, we interview fellow plus size business owners, influencers, and designers with the goal to show and share how WE can best support them, especially NOW! Today, we chat with Rosie Mercado about her journey, her newest project, and how you can support her next chapter!! Grab some coffee, tea, a soda and grab a friend and join us in this fun conversation!
View Video Transcript
0:05
hello hello hello hello welcome back to speaking of curves i am marie denae the creator of the kirby
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fashionista and today we are back with another amazing host so
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if you're new to our speaking of curves situation here we interview different um influencers
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designers business owners um creators in the plus space to talk
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about how we can support them how they're pivoting what they're doing during this pandemic time
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and how we can best support them to make sure we see them on the other side right and so as you're joining in make sure
0:43
you say hey girl hey let us let me know where you're tuning in from don't be shy to share this right
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make sure you share so you can share with your home like there's this whole world over here right and um i'm so excited about today's
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guest for a few reasons i've known her i want to say since almost 2008 i feel like
1:04
2009 we've known each other she is a plus model she's a host she's an actress
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she's a life coach and most recently she's about to add published author with
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harper collins like literally to her resume and she's been all over the place you recognize
1:23
her face and i'm really geeked and excited to welcome miss rosie mercado flores thank you so much
1:30
for joining us hey mama it's good to be here thanks for the opportunity it's 2008 girl talk about um
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manifesting things overnight huh everybody says that things happen that people think like boom like oh like
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all of a sudden like all this stuff starts happening and it's overnight now 2008 have been knocking on doors
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hustling working hard and um thanks for the opportunity of allowing me to be on your platform
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girl thank you for joining me like it's really been like you know we've known each other since
2:02
since the first full figure fashion week so yeah
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the very first face of full figure fashion week like you came on the scene you were like boom hey booze
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from there you were on curvy girls on nouveau tv like you've done a lot yeah and you know
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what i look at all that i look at all that and i look at the growth and the transformation and the
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lessons and the failures and the successes that have come along and honestly you know what i'm thankful i'm
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thankful for every of those moments and every lesson that's taught me because it's gotten to this point it's got me to this point and
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now i got my baby i got i'm married um i have my book coming out podcast like there's just a lot of stuff but it's
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been discipline hard work failure success learning pivoting growing um and
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blessing after blessing and staying in faith that's the biggest one staying in faith has been the biggest one that's got me through all of this
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you know i have to say like that's probably been one of the biggest things for me through this pandemic so
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for you like you used to live in vegas you moved to california so thank you for getting up early with us thank you
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um for you those people who who aren't familiar so much with you give them a
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little bit of like you know this is who i am um you know what i'm i'm a proud latina i'm a pro
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latina i'm a mom i'm now a police author um came from the plus-size modeling world um
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i went through a whole physical and spiritual transformation throughout that but really my first my first opportunity
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really intro the entertainment world was full figure fashion week and just knocking on those doors at
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pounds um and just really paid in the way of wanting to my voice to be heard to be
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represented as as a as a plus-sized woman and from there going into designing
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clothing doing things that i love going into television reality shows and then becoming a host a life coach
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and really learning what my purpose and mission was um through all of that which is i think
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just speaking my voice keeping or keeping authenticity to me keeping it keeping an open book about
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the successes and failures that i've been through in this industry and um tapping into just like my personal
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life which has been being married a couple times and sharing that journey as well what i've learned through the power of relationships
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on the power of being a single mom trying to make ends meet and then you know now being able to share my memoir
4:32
of um the takeaways that i've learned through each of those journeys in my life from motherhood to being an entrepreneur
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to being a plus-size model and being that host not even a life coach so you've got this little cutie pie on
4:45
your lap honey [Music] introduce us
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say hi so this is my four month old so my husband and i got married two years ago
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um we have seven kids seven kids total in a blended family um this is our youngest our four month
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old his name's emiliano and he's a little chunky monkey he has talked girl he has taught me so many
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lessons at 40. dude never expected to go through the transformation do a whole bunch of stuff and then be a mom again never expected
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that so but you know i love that because you know for me i'm knocking on 40 and you know i kind
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of want kids or i'm not thor or you know whatever and so like when you share those stories
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it's actually really inspiring to hear you know from women go ahead
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yeah you know what pete i think putting our age out there is a big thing so many women are so afraid to say holy
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[ __ ] i'm 40 years old and i'm going through this or i haven't accomplished this
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or i want to do it but what are people gonna think um i've learned to embrace every area
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of my life 40 is just a celebration of i've gotten this far in life and i still have so much more to do and go
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and you know being a mother at this age you know doctors scare you they tell you a whole bunch of stuff but you know walking in
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faith and taking care of yourself and you know i i firmly believe everything happens for a reason
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there is learning lesson through everything and i for me again it's being faithful
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saying in prayer and just learning like this is a new part of the journey like what am i supposed to learn
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and i have this bundle of joy that's added so much so much um light and so much uh
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god just so much learning what a healthy relationship is and being married and you know finally without success you've
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gone through like different like changes and different ups and downs and one of the things that i think is really
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amazing is like you like even when we've had like different conversations like just chatting on the
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phone like you still smiled through it like you still smiled and and i wanted
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to talk a little bit about like especially now like everything that the world is like what the hell
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right yeah the world is like holy [ __ ] like everybody's like dealing with so much
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stuff everything that we thought that we would never deal with or faced with we we have been forced to look at our darkness we've been forced to look at
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the stuff that's really going on in the world um we've been forced to make a decision whether to speak up or shut up
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or to ignore it um and eventually like there's been divorces there's been wake-up calls there's been people
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sharing their powerful voice speaking up for what is right um you know speaking and doing things
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for what is right um all across the all across the board and then also i think finding what we
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value which is family like what were we missing what were we not doing um right so this pandemic has opened the
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eyes to so many things and i think it's it's if you look at it from a sense of it's increased the
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values and what we've forgotten i am staring at you i'm literally like
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amazed at how you're having this whole conversation you're folding your little man you're moving you're doing different things
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and you're not missing a beat i have to like get it girl get it thank you thank you i think this
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is a reality of of of women of if when you're a woman whether you are a mom or not
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we multitask and i think people don't like people sometimes don't understand how much we
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do whether you're an entrepreneur you're working um you're working you're hustling you're going about your dream
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you're working an eight-to-five job and then after the eight-to-five job comes your hustle for your dreams right your transformation your own
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growth like as women we're constantly hustling so i just want to keep it real doesn't
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mean that it's always easy sometimes we're like oh man like here we go how do i do this but you know
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what you just got to keep going you got to keep pushing forward and and through it you learn you learn so much so thank you for acknowledging
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that of course so i do have a quick question from angel angel asked i want to be a model
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for plus size friends but i don't even know where to start i get this question all the time and i always say you need
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to follow different models blogs and websites because they share different tips
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um for someone who's curious about this before you answer that question
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can you talk a little bit about like the misconceptions of being a plus model because i think a
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lot of people think like oh you're pretty you can be a model but you have to be you have to have a
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thick ass head you have to get thick you have to have fake skin because that's the one place i mean
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there you are oh no your volume went away there we go oh there we are okay so i
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have it on you know this room i don't know what happened there um so so i think what people have the
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misconception is that you go into modeling and it's very glamorous the end result is very glamorous the final
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picture that you see is very glamorous but throughout that you have to have thick skin because you were constantly going through you
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got the job no you didn't get the job no you didn't get the other no no no no no yes no no no no yes but
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throughout all the no's that you get it feels like rejection and it's not that they're rejecting you it's just you're not what they're
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looking for and then on top of that you have to have the experience that you have to go into it that it's not that oh i'm beautiful i'm a
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model no no no i'm here to do a job performance service like this has to like not only look good
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but i have to be able to through my image i have to represent a message sell the product and when i
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become something that i could sell a product then i'm completely hired over and over again so there is a big business perspective but
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a lot of women think that oh i'm a model is glamorous hello that's all it is and then when you
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go and show up to auditions and you're like they don't take the time of day to really like you know you're just not what we're looking for
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um and you're not ready for that you have to have thick skin like it really can get under your skin if you're not
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mentally and emotionally and spiritually prepared for that and when you don't book those jobs right away also you have to have
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you have to understand why you're doing it be purposeful with it because you got to keep on knocking on doors and that's
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just everything in life there's a purpose behind it if you understand your why you'll keep doing it if not you will fall into depression those
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criticisms will get into your skin and you need to understand that people are human not everybody is nice about a criticism
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sometimes they can't be mean and you have to just be graceful about it and say you know what thank you it didn't work out this time but maybe in the
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future if you ever need me please give me a call i'm always here to help out or always here you know looking for work
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oh that's that is an answer real quick for those of you guys who are just joining us i'm marie the creator of the kirby
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fashionista and we're here on our speaking of curves with our very like oh gee guests in the plus place
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face uh miss rosie mercado flores and she's sharing with us a little bit about her journey she's taking questions
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or yeah he's answering questions and she just finished answering the question around um
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well initially it was more about like you know how where do you start to be a model and i kind of switched it up and
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was like what do you need to know before going to the modeling space because i think there's often that
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disconnect or that space and so um you know what i think also i think
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that i also think that the disconnect was especially coming from full figure fashion week and going to different
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fashion weeks um although going all the way to paris and being in fashion week i think the disconnect is also is
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you see someone on the runway you see how beautiful they are all eyes are on you the attention is on
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me so if you're going into this to seek attention and validation it is the wrong reason to go into this
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industry like there has to be a bigger purpose um than that and i've noticed that a lot of women as soon as they don't get the
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validation or they don't get the opportunities they kind of give up um which tells you a lot of where they stand but if you want to get into this
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industry it's work work work work start taking pictures um figure out what other plus size models
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are doing figure out how they're doing it and you see them that one thing that is in common with all of them they are consistently taking different types of
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pictures pushing out their own message their own purpose through those images and that's how you get work because you
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need to be able to prove to those brands that you're capable of standing in front of camera and shooting and that you
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could you could shoot all day like that that that like nobody's people just passed off at instagram now
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like instagram is now the new casting couch yeah yeah and and they want to also know that
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you're connecting that you have a bigger purpose than just you know something that's not authentic uh you know not being authentic
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like people capture your [ __ ] like no tomorrow people see through that people are not hungry for that people
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are hungry for authenticity you got stretch marks own it you have roles oda you've lost
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weight own it you've gained weight own it when you publicly talk about all these things that people are going
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through that are too embarrassed too shy they don't know who to turn and you voice that out and you voice exactly what you're
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going through and how you get over it and how you love yourself you create a connection that people become
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loyal they start speaking engaging that's what brands want right now they want a voice right
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more than just an image i mean and and we all i think it's almost it's not even just brands it's like us
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right especially now especially for the past six months like we have been looking for ways to connect
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to i mean that's part of the reason why i started the speaking of curves right to connect
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with other entrepreneurs business owners influencers because i needed motivation too and
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inspiration like it's a little bit selfish for me but i wanted to be able to hear
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from other folks like you because it kept me going and then for me it's like i'm you know wanting to help you know and serve the
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community and be able to introduce to some people like the face behind the brand right because
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we see pictures we see you know all these other things but when we have a conversation and you get to
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kind of peek behind the carton it's it's a whole other type of conversation yeah
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so i you know and i love that murray because um you're curious and i think that's what a lot of people right now especially
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through pandemic we have been a lot of people are don't have jobs there's a lot of time in their hands there's a lot of worry
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and one thing that i've really like understood and learned that right now um look we understand that we're all
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going through this together everybody's going through something in a different way but nonetheless we're all
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going through different issues that we have to deal with and i think now more than ever if you could turn the story around and give yourself
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look you know i i know that i've gone through this this is the time to educate myself this is the time to really ask myself
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why am i doing what i'm doing is this for the direction i want to go this is a time to pivot to transform to
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educate to find that hunger find that light to connect and i mean there's so many
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people putting so much information out there it's what you do with that information you can have information all day but if you don't do anything it
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takes you nowhere and i'm just curious that you're sharing with us is this what's going to be
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in your book is this what's going to be can you reference this in your book yeah you know what through my blog we're
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going through the ups and downs of my life everywhere from relationships to business to plus modeling to my
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oh no sorry about that um i'm going through everything can you
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hear me i can hear you but we can't see you right now uh oh let's see
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uh-oh all right yeah i can't see me either did you get a call yeah it's on do not
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disturb i don't know how i'm getting phone calls so funny life happens huh yeah so keep going okay
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so i know that you guys can't see me but my book really is about life lessons it's about the life lessons that i
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learned through the ups and downs and the emotions that i felt like the real raw emotions that i felt
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from failure to you know the uncertainty of the unknown and um and how i dealt with that and how
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moments i really felt like giving up i thought that like that was it that i i wasn't gonna succeed you know the
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stories that i told myself about failure and looking at failure through different eyes and understanding that everything
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that i went through why i went through it and then how people responded to my success and how people responded to my failures
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and what that taught me throughout that journey so i mean honestly it's um it really is a
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celebration of success and failure it's the authentic truth that i went through of opening up about failed
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relationships abuse and um and being able to speak real about
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you know health and sickness motherhood not being a perfect mother um as i had my kids i wasn't you know
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everybody wants wants to say that you know i've attained perfection or you know that i don't do
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that but honestly i think this book really was about opening up and just saying hey look i'm human i've made mistakes this is where i'm at
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in my life and this is what i've learned and i hope that these lessons if you're going through this and you're too shy or too embarrassed to talk about
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it you know i just really hope that this lesson really helps you and helps you heal and helps you find your journey that
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helps you find the way now um so miss ida said even when your
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phone is on do not disturb since you're on it it will still ring that is good to know that is good to
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know yeah that is good to know ida thank you so much i appreciate that because i'm like i know that i put on do not disturb
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so um i got this whole technology has been so new in transforming interviews and and just
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working from home and auditions and stuff like that hasn't taken us to a new path of virtually connected information
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innovation is key so real quick do you are you able to see like your um
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settings like and to see your um at the bottom like your cam yeah yeah let's see oh there we go
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uh-oh let's go back there we go yes we're back okay so i've learned that the camera now
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and do not disturb the phone calls will come in even if it's on do not disturb and the camera goes off with every phone call
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there we go so i'm dropping the link um to her book the information about her
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book the book is called the girl with self-esteem issues and this is
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you can actually pre-order it right now and for our latina and spanish-speaking and
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spanish reading custom you know readers the book will also be available in spanish too yes and i love that because
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it's a way of honoring my culture it's about honoring my parents and honoring who i am as a latina you
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know i'm a proud latina but to say that i'm a proud latina and not honor it with action it's a whole different level so i'm so
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grateful with harper collins and on top of the girl with self-esteem issues book um if they pre-order now they get a
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self-love tool kit where i talk about the importance of self-love and how to start that process because
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self-love right now more than ever is so important for mental health for spirituality just for psychological
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well-being and also you know in life you know your daughter your mother you know your sister your
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cousin that's a lot help will help you help others you have a voice that's true
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it's to empower you and to feel good and when you feel good you do good that's what's up i'm impressed about
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your like you know what is it it's nine o'clock in the morning your time and you've got on this amazing eye
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makeup and these lashes this there we go serving face
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in the morning with your four months old giving us this interview and you know i'm really impressed and
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inspired by like how you you've managed to like really like life have given you some lemons and
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you turn it into a a martini right like
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yeah or a lemon drop there we go i i like lemon drops so we're going to
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stay with that right so tell me like you mentioned designing
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i've always wanted to ask you oh i just said rosie your makeup is bomb
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hold up thank you thank you i appreciate it so shout out to my makeup artist who came
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in at six in the morning um you know what marie i i really have to say um you know going on a facebook live
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being able to talk to you when you grow to a certain part of your life you understand what your word means
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to commit to something you understand that i have to sacrifice sleep to get up early why because
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i there's there's a certain way that i want to present myself and it's a form of self-respect for myself and it's a
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form of respect to the person that i'm giving my time to and when you take these opportunities and you see them as an opportunity
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you start shifting your mind and you take that into responsibility so you do things that you have to get done no excuses get them done regardless you
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know the sacrifices wake up earlier so 24 hours in the days what you're going to do with it so thank you
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girl you so fancy like you're over here just giving all these little little drops so for the people
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if you could speak to someone who was kind of like navigating this thumb pandemic like i have learned
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through doing the series you know a lot of um people have like taken leaps of faith
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have you know started a project or a passion or they've leaned into a passion that
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you know they've had has been kind of sitting right here and now that with the time and the way that the world has shifted
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like you know they're starting to you know take that leap and kind of move into some of the things
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that that bring them joy what advice would you give a share with them in that kind of transition
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and that kind of transition i think um one thing that i've said throughout my book um and one thing that i've learned
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throughout my journey is when you're in transition there's gonna be moments that you feel like giving up
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and i that's human part of us we feel like giving up we get let down we get a no um someone doesn't believe in the
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product or our dream or the creation that we've done and then you know we we find ourselves
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okay like this isn't working but the thing is if that's not working that's just
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that's just life showing you okay this isn't working doesn't mean it's not going to work right how can you give it a twist what
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can you turn around this this action what other action can i take towards towards my dream so it really is about
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committing to when you feel like giving up okay why am i doing this okay i'm doing this because this is my passion this is my purpose
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this is part of my mission okay so i can't give up so this isn't working so like telling me this isn't working i'm not failing at
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this what can i do differently so it's about asking quality questions so you can get quality answers and you
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can give yourself the drive that you need to keep on going because if we go into failure mode
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we're like why does this happen why me i'm a victim like i'm gonna give up this didn't work
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this was a waste of my time no look at it like there's a purpose there's growth here it's not going to happen overnight
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patience is important consistency is key i got to keep on going and this is why i'm going to keep on going
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and if it's important for you even write it put it in your mirror so when you wake up it's the first thing that you're reminded of
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i'm awake thank you gratitude for that i am breathing i have purpose this is part of my mission this is why i'm doing it all right time
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to hustle time to go vanessa said oh my gosh she's giving an interview while burping her baby this is
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like presidential i'm keeping it around motherhood right
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but you know i mean this is this is the this is the time like this is the space where we're at now right like
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this is reality this is reality this is like honesty and so you have mentioned um you know
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the the pivot you know just because you you know you get a no doesn't mean like
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no more just not right now or not right now right exactly
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um i think what is i would also like to hear from you kind of where
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because oftentimes like you and you've mentioned it a couple of times like you know when you the the way that
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you've paid attention to the way people react to you when you succeed and you've paid attention to the way people reacted to you in the failures
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like what like so for me as someone who's like
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recently gone through therapy who's like you know coming out and learning how to like be more audacious be more bold and like
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how do i and i constantly ask myself how do i show up for marie right because you know i didn't have to
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get all fancy in my h m leather dress but you know i was talking with miss rosie and i wanted to be fancy like her
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you look so fabulous fabulous thank you darling you look beautiful hair and eye makeup
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and awe thank you kindly sis i appreciate you um but in in this kind of process when
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you're learning kind of how do you um seeking approval right how did you nip that in the bud
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because i think that approval seeking peace is what can kind of derail you from
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your dreams and your goals because it you you start to kind of reach out to
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folks or you ask questions to folks who aren't your um who don't know the vision who can't see
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the vision girl hold on right now what you just said speaking to folks about your vision stop doing that you
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share your vision with people close people two three people max people that
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are really close to you people that are gonna speak life into your vision speak with the people that believe in you
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you don't go tell them the world i'm gonna go through this because this is what i learned when you tell like my book was under
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wraps for two and a half years it was under wraps why because i'm gonna tell you the biggest lesson that i learned when i went
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through bariatric surgery and i was public about it and when i lost weight people discredited me they told
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me that i was selling out to hollywood that i did it for all the wrong reasons and that lesson for me was very big
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i lost not only people that i thought supported me i lost friendships the people that i thought were friends um
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people just started talking [ __ ] left and right and what did that teach me is that at the end why did i do what i do i did
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it for happiness for freedom for vitality for having uh quality moments with my kids without
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having to worry if i had to bring someone along or if i fit in a car fit in a ride um and what did that teach me is that as
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i dropped weight people critic people criticized me when i was 420 pounds that i was too damn fat
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too big hip i was never gonna model i started modeling at that weight finding my group i lost the weight modeled even more and
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people didn't criticize me you sold out to hollywood you lost the weight you're right if you do damn dude damn if you do them
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if you don't and what i learned is rosie what is this about is this you about seeking validation and looking for
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people's compliments and that they're like hey they're gonna cheer you on you're doing it for the wrong reasons
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you got to do it for what makes you happy what your purpose and mission is and one thing that i learned today um to
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bible study that god doesn't call the equipped he equips the people he calls
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and that for me that for me was huge today
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girl bible study i'm a woman of faith and i just want to keep it real and throughout the journey i just learned
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like why that's why i always say why is important because if you're seeking validation trust me you will be turned upside down
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by the criticism you think you're doing something right and then someone's gonna bring you down tear it apart and tell you all the
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reasons why you shouldn't or people are gonna be like you're too crazy you're dreaming about doing this you're not gonna make it or you know
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what you lost weight girl why did you lose weight come on now get real why did you lose weight and that girl you you lost that much but
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you look so sick you need to eat you need to put some pounds on and then you do put some pounds on girl you put it on some pound you you gotta
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lose some weight anybody happy this journey your journey is about being at peace with who you are walking
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in your own authentic skin being happy whatever happy may mean for you and accomplishing your purpose and
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finding your dreams when you find your dreams and you're on purpose and you're on mission you will find that you are peaceful you are in flow
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people's reactions you need to understand negativity has nothing to do with you it's none of
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your business it's their own personal journey they criticize you bless them and keep keep on going
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hey look i mean they chris they still criticize beyonce yeah i mean like everyone's got an
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opinion everyone's got something to say and i think you know the more that we realize this is something that i've also been
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learning and through just through these years and literally like
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for me i realized that my purpose and my walk looks different because it is different
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it's different everyone's walking purpose is going to be different you know okay
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okay and i think that's where we kind of sometimes it's easy to get kind of
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um discouraged or um distracted by someone else's you know
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picture or edited you know something they posted on instagram has made you feel like oh i'm not there oh yeah if someone
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quest if someone goes and says oh wow and and i've had this like i literally had this
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two weeks ago some girl said damn girl you've lost all this weight but your body doesn't match your face so why don't you just get some
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surgery and make it match and i was like you know what that just shows an insecurity something in my body
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triggered something in them that they would react that way and that didn't get me down what i my my purpose is when