You might know her as the bitchy, formidable and fabulous Alison DiLaurentis from Pretty Little Liars but to me Sasha Pieterse is much more than that role. It’s noticeable that throughout the seasons Sasha gains weight and it’s safe to say people have been anything but kind about her weight gain. But Sasha does not hold back when responding to these Twitter trolls and she tells it exactly how it is.
One woman tweeted Sasha saying that her body made her and her daughters “uncomfortable” and that “overweight is never attractive” to which Sasha replied:
Her fierce and clever responses are one of the many reasons that I admire Sasha so much. Not only this but she preaches self-love at every opportunity, especially to young women. She has been open and honest about her weight gain, which is caused by a hormonal problem, and she continues to encourage women of all shapes and sizes to love themselves.
In one particularly emotional letter she wrote about the importance of learning to love yourself, even when you don’t feel any self-love at all.
This letter really hit home for me. I realised that I haven’t been treating myself the way I want to be treated and that I needed to start treating myself better and caring for myself.
I’ve never been slim, and I’ve never been happy with how I look. I had got used to the fact that I would never truly love my body and I accepted that because all the women around me seem to feel the same. Every woman I know dislikes some part of her body, but when I started to read Sasha’s letter and watch her interviews I realised that shouldn’t be the case.
Women should love themselves no matter what and that’s something I’m slowly learning how to do. It isn’t easy to change your way of thinking when you have been conditioned by society to believe that one body type is preferable and that being thin should be your ultimate goal. But I’m working on it, because Sasha showed me how it can be done.
Sasha Pieterse is the same age as me, successful, engaged and absolutely gorgeous. To me she is the perfect idol because she is relatable. Her openness, self-improvement and ability to love herself is incredible, and she’s helping me to do the same.
So, if I can give anyone one piece of advice, it would be to follow Sasha’s Instagram or Twitter and watch her interviews on YouTube, because she’ll inspire you to love yourself too.
Image Sources
1 – Twitter