Tess Holliday reveals distress of competing in teenage beauty pageant in touching Instagram post

'Unsurprisingly, I didn’t win that night, but man, did I end up winning in life'

Tess Holliday (Instagram)

Tess Holliday has shared a very touching post on Instagram detailing the upset that she felt when competing in her only beauty pageant aged 13 years old.

Plus-size model Holliday, born Ryann Maegen Hoven, has become famous as a major proponent of the body positivity movement.

However, despite exuding confidence as a proud plus-size model, Holliday has experienced her fair share of body image issues from a very young age.

Yesterday, Holliday shared a post with her 1.5 million Instagram followers comparing a photo of her aged 13 competing in her first and last beauty pageant and a more recent shot of the model.

“Growing up in Mississippi, pageants were life and all of the ‘pretty’ girls did them, and my god how badly I wanted to feel beautiful and fit in,” she wrote.

“The rest of the girls competing were showing much more skin, they were all dolled up and I remember the pit in my stomach of feeling so unloveable and unworthy because to me, I didn’t look like them.”

Holliday explained how the dress that she wore was the only one her mother was able to find in town in her size and how she felt ridiculed by the audience when she took to the stage.

The 31-year-old’s life has transformed significantly since her early teen years, and she only wishes she could have told her younger self that the best was yet to come.

“Unsurprisingly, I didn’t win that night, but man, did I end up winning in life,” she wrote.

“I wish someone could have shown that sad, lonely 13-year-old kid the photo on the right of her future: shooting a fashion campaign in Paris, wearing a gown that not only fits me, but allows me to no longer hide.

“As I write this, I’m packing my bags for #NYFW, and I have moments where so [sic] still feel like that little girl, sad, and overwhelmed by how hard the world can be to those of us who have never quite fit in.”

Holliday has become a voice for women with more curvaceous figures all over the world since coining the hashtag #effyourbeautystandards that went viral in 2013.

Holliday ended her Instagram post with a message of positivity for anyone who’s struggling with self esteem issues, writing: “If you are reading this, please know you aren’t alone. Please know it gets better, and the #glowup is real.

“Life is weird, but things always have a way of working out."