I was born with a cleft lip and palate (唇腭裂) and all my life I've had to accept people staring at me. When you have a visible 1 , you can certainly feel that. In secondary school it really started 2 me. I would have bad names shouted at me. Even outside school, adults would sometimes shout 3 .

I was lucky to have two older sisters who looked out for me, but I still struggled with anxiety, putting myself out there and being 4 . Things started to change six months ago when my sister ran the online art club, Fat Life Drawing, to praise 5 bodies and reclaim the word "fat". I saw what a(n) 6 atmosphere it was and how our participants were seeing themselves as they are, which is the 7 part of it—to accept yourself as you are. I thought our models were 8 and I loved drawing them; why was I not seeing myself in the same positive light?

Then, about three months ago, when a 9 couldn't show up for my sister's drawing class, I thought: I'll just do it. It worked out fine. After this modeling experience, I began to enjoy being 10 . Putting myself in front of people was a really big 11 for me. As a life model in front of a group of people, I felt like I was inviting these artists to look at me, but with positivity and respect rather than 12 . I've become more confident about how I 13 . I can go out without makeup. I'm 26 now and 14 with putting myself out there-I don't want to 15 .