Victoria’s Secret posted a video on Instagram last week featuring model Sara Sampaio where she spoke in accordance with the brand’s new “Know Your Body” campaign. In the video, she energetically waves her arms around while comparing her body to that of model Candice Swanepoel. Sampaio tells the camera that she will never look like Candice, and to her, that isn’t a bad thing.
Sampaio is trying to convey a positive body image message for girls. She is telling girls to love the body that they have and to not waste your time trying to change the way we look because our individuality is beautiful. However, writer for Jezebel, Erin Gloria Ryan, commented that “It’s really just one model talking about how another model is so totally sexy in an unattainable way” with a headline of “A Helpful Victoria’s Secret Reminder: Even Model’s Hate Themselves.”
Sara Sampaio did not just let this comment go, however. She stood up in what she believed in and the message she was so honestly trying to convey. She responded to such a sassy statement with an eloquent and professional retort:
Dear Erin from Jezebel, I don’t hate myself! I was actually taught by my family to respect and love myself and indeed others! I feel sorry that you were not able to see beyond your own self-serving interest to sensationalize a story, by creating a negative spin on a positive message and making a foregone conclusions about a young “model” you have never met before!
I have a lot of young girls that look up to me as a young woman and role model. I have been criticized for being too skinny and judged purely on my looks. I have been vocal because I believe as women we are all beautiful and no matter what we look like we deserve to respect ourselves and be respected and loved by other. The title of your article states that I hate myself. To the contrary I love myself like I am. I can also look at another woman and admire her beauty. In fact I admire the beauty of many women from all areas of life, not only Candice’s. It doesn’t mean I want to look like them because I am happy the way I am, the way my mother and father brought me into this world, and who I am today and who I will be in the future.
You are a beautiful young woman, please love yourself and don’t judge other women that you don’t know. As women we need to stand together. We are judged and objectified often enough by men. Here is to your feminism.
So kudos to you Sara for both setting an extraordinary example for all girls to love their bodies and for standing up for yourself in a dignified and classy way! See you on the runway!