Just As Well, The Women's Health Podcast - Mission Confidence: Sonny Turner on Body Image Boosters + Post-Lockdown Fashion

Episode Date: May 20, 2021

Welcome to Mission Confidence, a special edition of the Going For Goal podcast sponsored by Philips that’s designed to help you on your body confidence journey. This podcast has been created as part of our Project Body Love initiative, which is all about challenging the way we think, feel and speak about our bodies; embracing what makes us unique and putting an end to negative self-talk and embarrassment. Philips believe that hair removal should be a choice, and it looks different for everyone. If you do choose to remove your body hair, whether you prefer to take it all off or to tackle your legs, armpits or bikini line only, Philips has a range of hair removal tools to suit your needs. And on Mission Confidence, over four episodes and with the help of some very wise women, we’re going to be exploring confidence in its various facets and forms – with the goal of helping you tap into yours. Today we’re discussing the self-esteem-bolstering power of expressing yourself through fashion with Sonny Turner, a 22-year-old Birmingham-born model and body positivity advocate. Whether she’s stepping down the runway at NY fashion week or posing up a storm on her IG grid, you’ll know her as bold, confident and committed to sharing the message that women of all shapes and sizes should feel empowered to experiment with fashion and wear what they want, when they want. Here, Sonny reveals the body image wobbles she’s experienced over the course of the pandemic and how pulling together new outfits, and leaning into workouts, has helped her get excited about the unlocked summer ahead. She also shares how experimenting with the Philips Lumea at home IPL device is helping her get the smooth armpits she prefers – without irritation. Join Sonny Turner on Instagram: @sonnyturner__ https://www.instagram.com/sonnyturner___/?hl=en Join Roisín on Instagram: @roisin.dervishokane https://www.instagram.com/roisin.dervishokane/ To find out more visit philips.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Phillips that's designed to help you on your body confidence journey. This podcast has been created as part of our Project Body Love Initiative, which is all about challenging the way we think, feel and speak about our bodies, embracing what makes us unique, and putting an end to negative self-talk and embarrassment. Phillips believe that hair removal should be a choice and that it looks different for everyone. If you do choose to remove your body hair, whether you prefer to take it all off or tackle your legs, armpits or bikini line only,

Phillips has a range of hair removal tools to suit your needs. And on mission confidence over four episodes, with the help of some very wise women, we're going to be exploring confidence in its various facets and forms, with the goal of helping you tap into yours. On this episode, we're looking at the relationship between confidence and clothes and the self-esteem bolstering power of expressing yourself through fashion. My guest on today's episode is Sunny Turner, a 22-year-old Birmingham-born model and body positivity action.

Whether she's stepping down the runway at New York Fashion Week or posing up a storm on her IG grid, you'll know her as bold, confident and committed to sharing the message that women with curves, like all women, can experiment with fashion and wear what they want, when they want. Today, Sunny shares the body image wobbles she's experienced in lockdown and how putting together new outfits and leaning into workouts, the biggest catalyst for better body confidence, according to our project body love data, data has helped her get excited about the unlocked summer ahead. She also shares how experimenting with the Phillips Lumaya at-home IPL device is helping her get the smooth armpits she prefers without

irritation. Sunny Turner, hello and welcome to Mission Confidence. Hello, thanks for having me. You're so welcome and it's great to have you on. How are you feeling today? How's the pandemic treating me? Exactly. How goes it as we emerge out? Yeah, so excited. I haven't really branched out to sitting out in the rain or in the cold just yet. I think I'm going to wait until May the 17th or wait until there's more restrictions eased. But yeah, as good as can be, I think the best it's been all year, really. Everything feels really positive positive. Fabulous. Yeah, I'm really, really glad to hear it. And what impact has it had on you, like, work-wise? It's had a massive impact on me, actually. Before 2020, before the whole pandemic happened, I was living in New York. for modelling for six months. And at the end of that six months,

I felt like I wanted to try a job or a career for a while that wasn't to do with anything to do with my looks or wasn't to do anything with Instagram because I felt really drained. So I decided to do a TEFL course, which is teaching English as a foreign language. And I literally, January 2020, I went to Thailand and basically became a teacher

for two months and a half. And then COVID broke out and then I came back. So yeah, it's been very, very different for me, but I've been actually enjoying the adjustment of change and just kind of appreciating what you have and, you know, where you come from and stuff like that. So it hasn't all been bad. Hasn't all been bad. But I'm ready to go back at full speed. I'm enough downtime now. Let's go. Let's go. I love that. Love, love, love the energy. So on this mini series of mission confidence, we are looking at confidence in all its various facets and forms. And today, with you, we're looking at

how you can achieve confidence through self-expression and through your clothes. Yeah. So talk to me. What is the, what's the relationship? What's the relationship that you have between what you wear and how confident you feel? Oh, it's so important. I feel like, you know, finding clothes that you're so comfortable in and that you really love can really change your mood when you go out.

For the longest time, obviously in lockdown was just in tracksuit, pajamas all day at one point, and just feeling like super down. And I think I put a pair of jeans off like the first time in months and the other week. And I just noted a complete shift in just sort of like wanting to actually go out more, wanting to see people and interact with people. It really, I think really finding clothes that you're comfortable in is super important. Oh God, yeah, totally, totally. And then what about so you're there, you're saying there that you've got this,

you are raring to go, maybe not in a cold pub garden, but you are raring to go. when we can kind of actually be out and socialise properly. What are you, are you putting outfits together at the moment? Oh my gosh. What's your aesthetic? What's your look? Oh my gosh. I've done two separate orders to ASOS and like two separate orders from all different places

because I just keep finding things that I like. So what have I bought? I've bought some shorts which I haven't more short like denim shorts. I haven't more that in ages. So yeah, so I bought some denim shorts which are like stretching. and they're like they're not too short so you can wear them at different like occasions and then I bought like a suit jacket

because the weather's getting warmer I bought like a suit jacket and I've never actually had one of those before I don't think so I'm excited to like pair those two together I ordered a wrap top which you know from my girls who've got big boobs you know that's a bit of a myth

I think in the past they've not ever really sold like do you know those like wrap tops that go like around the neck and then there's like a waistband that's really in at the moment. That has never really been for curfier women or women are bigger busts before. But now I've been shopping, online shopping I've been seeing there's like loads of different sizes and videos on how you can wear it if you've got a full of bust.

So I bought one of those. I need to learn how to wrap it properly, but we'll get there with that. And yeah, just like different colours, like more springy colours, loving pastels. Yeah. I want to get my nails done to match. You know, just bring the whole aesthetic together. And you clearly get so much. much, so much joy from experimenting with your clothes. Was that kind of always the case? Have you always

been into your clothes ever since you were little? I have always loved fashion, but it's like dipped in and out because I went through a phase where I wasn't feeling that confident in my body or how I looked. I didn't really like how clothes were looking on me. So I stopped buying clothes, stop ordering things and it's just like not really making any effort with my appearance, which is like quite like sad really because you know, you should be able to enjoy fashion. Like doesn't matter what your size is. So yeah, it's dipped with my confidence, but yeah, I have always definitely enjoyed dressing myself and finding outfits online. The thing I hate, though, is when it looks one way on the model and then it looks one way on you. And because I obviously work in the industry, I know the

tomfoolery that goes on behind the scenes and like how they clip things to make the waistband look tighter, you know, putting extra padding into stuff to make it like it supports the bus more. So I know all the tricks now. So I go in with more, I go in with more knowledge than I did before. Those eyes are open. Yeah, definitely. And that's, I mean, that's really sad to hear that you struggled so much with your own self-esteem and with your body image that you felt like you couldn't enjoy fashion and you couldn't enjoy expressing yourself. Especially because, like, if anyone looks, anyone who knows you or if they don't, if you go on Sunny's,

Instagram, you're so embodied. Like, you clearly have so much, like, pleasure and joy from being in your body and dressing it, and then even when you're in, like, underwear or, like, smaller things, like, there's such, you exhibit such pride in your body, and it's, it's sad to hear that you weren't always so confident.

So that time when your confidence had dipped, can you tell me about what was going on for you? What was going on for you then? What was going on for me? I feel like it was a mixture of, you know, feeling like not beautiful enough because I don't look like the model on the website, feeling like not attractive enough because of maybe some people that I was following on Instagram, maybe weren't the best people for me to like be looking up to.

And yeah, just based just more the self comparison. I feel like especially women, we compare ourselves so much with our peers, people we follow, you know, people we watch on TV, that it really translates into real life. and I really try to distance myself from social media a little bit these days because I don't like how much impact it can have on your day-to-day life. And yeah, I was just like, and also looking back at old pictures of yourself as well and wishing that you had that body, wishing you still look like that, when in the moment you probably weren't even as confident as you look in the pictures.

And yeah, I've just really stopped doing that. I just want to, you know, because we all gain and lose weight, it's like a normal thing. And I was always looking back at old pictures being like, oh, I wish I still look like that. When actually I should just realize that, no, the me that I am now is good enough. And, you know, the me that I am now has achieved so many things. And, you know, I'm more than just my physical appearance. Do you know what I mean? So, yeah, it was just kind of having to like, it was just kind of just having to remember that.

And, yeah, going back to sort of remembering how to be confident again, I guess. Yeah. And I'm really interested in how, because those are two such different places. So on that, it sounds like you've definitely been on a bit of a journey. So on that journey. So when you were struggling at that stage, how old were you? Oh, this is constant life dipping up and down. Yeah.

Back in February this year, I wasn't feeling the greatest. I think that was to do with sort of the world and the restrictions that were going on and not leaving the house and not socialising with people. And then obviously when I was a teenager in and out as well, when I was like 14, 15, when you start. to develop more as a woman and you don't know how to like dress it, you don't know how to like cope with it. Yeah, it's just constant. I would say it's a journey that is always ongoing and it's always going to have hills and mountains that you have to climb. Sometimes it flows like a

river and you feel great for months on end and sometimes you just don't. So yeah, I'd say I'm definitely not at the finish line and I don't know if there actually is a finish line when it comes to confidence. I don't think there is. I think that's, yeah, that's a really good point. And then someone else, so we had someone else who's a guest on Mission Confidence, was talking about confidence being a doing word, which I thought was really smart. Like it's something that you almost have to practice and you have to work out. And as you say, because all these challenges will come and they'll face you and you'll need to respond to them in different ways.

So what do you do? So say if you have a bad, if you have like a low confidence day recently or now, what do you do? What helps you feel better? When I wasn't feeling that great a few months ago, I decided to order some clothes online and just try them on and not necessarily post them or go out in them,

but just try them on at home, have fun styling them. But something I would do probably more regularly is I would put on like a gym outfit or a sportswear outfit that would make me feel really strong so that the idea about trying to be beautiful is taken away and focus more on being strong

and maybe go to the gym or even do a home workout. I started jogging a lot recently because I used to be really into it. I just, yeah, I used to be really into it and then I fell out with it. But now, yeah, for me it's more like a focus on being strong rather than always trying to like be beautiful. Because I feel like strong is actually more linked to confidence than maybe beautiful is. Because if you're feeling strong and like you can do things and like you can go places, you can lift things, you can, you know, that's going to completely add to your confidence like 100%. Yeah. Oh my God. Absolutely. And what's that feeling that you get after you've done? So maybe after you finish your workout and you've really pushed yourself. How would you describe how you feel inside?

Well, definitely sweaty. Besides from that, because it's funny because you actually look worse after you do the workout to feel better, but then you actually look worse afterwards, but you feel better, which is what's more important at the end of the day. But I would say I feel proud. When that happens, I feel proud of myself that I was able to like pull myself out of a dark place and, you know, not lock myself in my room or not like stay in my bed, which I've done a lot in the past. I feel proud of myself. I feel like I can accomplish anything for the rest of the day. I'm more inclined to like want to write in my diary a to do list. And like I just feel more active and like I want to do more and see more people.

So yeah. It almost nudges you. that's so great that like fitness for you and as you say putting on those like a really great active wear set almost nudges you in the direction of doing all these other things that are going to help build your confidence yeah I feel like you could just wake up and put um like a workout outfit on and then you feel like you know you feel like your day's going to go well because you're going to move and you're going to be active it's a statement of intent isn't it yeah I'm in gym leggings this morning I haven't yet done it and I haven't yet done anything but now I've

spoken to you. We've got time. We've got so much time. Okay, that's my accountability. That's my accountability. And also, so that's, that's amazing that fitness is such a key part of your, your confidence kit right now. But I'm also intrigued to know what else, what else is. We've talked about kind of taking time off social media. But what about kind of, and we've talked about fashion, but is there anything, like, what about kind of great laundry sets or is there any books you've been reading recently or like self-care rituals, what else goes into helping you have a good and confident day? Yeah. This is so silly but and it's kind of linked to fitness, but not really, but literally just like dancing in the mirror or like dancing in your bedroom is

super helpful and you can even do that in lingerie as well, you know, so you can see what your body looks like in all different angles and kind of get comfortable with that is really important. I've definitely used dance a lot. And like, not, it doesn't even have to be professional, just like turning up the speakers of your phone or putting the radio on, forgetting like what's going on outside and just kind of like being with you in the mirror with music on or in your bedroom. I think that's really great. Yeah, that sounds absolutely amazing. What's your, what's, what's, um, some of your go-to tunes? Oh, definitely Lizzo. I love Lizzo. I love her stuff. You couldn't engineer better music for that purpose.

Definitely. Any female artists, honestly, I love. I love. female artists. I don't even really listen to any male artists. Any female artist like Megan Nostalien, Lizzo, like anyone like that, I think is just great for me. Well, amazing. Well, maybe that's how I'll put my leggings to use today. Yeah. Thrashing around to Lizzo in my mirror. Fabulous. Excellent, excellent self-care suggestions. And I also want to ask you about what you've been doing in terms of like beauty rituals. So Phillips have brought us together today. And you have been used. And you have been using the Phillips Lumeyer at home IPL device for how long now? Three weeks, I think it is now.

Yeah. And how are you using it? Philip's whole message and something that we heartily echo is that there are absolutely no right or wrong ways to do hair removal. If you want to remove your hair, that's fine. If you don't, that's also fine if you want to do whatever bits. That's all good. So where does this kind of fit in?

What bits are you using it on? Check out the big stars, big series and blog. Blockbuster movies. Streaming on Paramount Plus. Cue the music. Like NCIS, Tony and Ziva. We'd like to make up our own rules. Tulsa King.

We want to take out the competition. The substance. This balance is not working. And the naked gun. That was awesome. Now that's a mountain of entertainment. Paramount Worth. So I've used it mostly on armpits, I'd say.

and like I'm not really that fussed on body hair but obviously working in an industry where it's all about how you look and how you present yourself it's naturally just been something that I've had to do so the fact that I have a tool now where I can do it so easily and more permanently it lasts a lot longer

than using a razor like definitely there's a great point about the whole sustainability thing like the fact that you're using less that's a tool that you've got for ages yeah razors just don't last that long and then it's obviously plastic. So then you have to throw that away,

and then you have to buy more razors. And also, like, ingrowns are just, like, something that I only experienced recently last year, and I literally did not know what to do about it. I was like, oh, my God. And obviously, some of them scar as well, so then it's like, I've had to learn to, like, embrace scars. But, yeah, with Phillips Lumaya,

I haven't had any scar in, I haven't had any in-growing hairs, haven't had any rashes or any other issues, which is so good. Sweet. Well, long way it continue. And has it, has you using it, has it kind of fed into, I feel like you're someone who really knows what they need in terms of their self-care, which is absolutely excellent. Has it kind of fed into, have you made it like part of your like grooming ritual? Like when do you do it?

Because obviously it's different like you go and get your wax done or you're used to kind of shaving in the shower. Like how do you fit it in? I mean, I've always been quite a convenience driven shaving the shower type person. But with the Phillips Lumaya IPL device, I've been using it whenever I'm. I've got time to myself. Like whenever I can just enjoy the process, not rush it, so I can do it properly and just really enjoy the process of taking care of myself.

I think that's really important. I think that's something as well that we've all kind of really learn over the past year and a bit, hasn't it? Yeah. It's such a cliche, isn't it? Self care isn't selfish. But I think over the past, I don't know. I don't know about you, but over the past, yeah, over the past year and a bit,

I feel that's really, really been, been, hammered home and those things that we used to think is maybe a bit silly or a bit superfluous or a bit nice to have, you're suddenly realising that whatever those things are that make you feel good, you've got to do them because otherwise everything else will get in the way. I know. I've definitely been exploring like things that I maybe liked before but never like did myself. So for example, cooking, like there's so many foods that I liked but I just reserved for like, oh, you only have that in a restaurant or, you know, I've been a special occasion. but now it's like, just have it whenever because you never know.

Like, you do the things that you love now. So what have you been making? Oh my gosh, I've made so many things. Oh, talk you to me doing them. Okay, so I've made loads of Nando's fakeaways. I love Nando so much. Obviously, Nando's is close for ages. I've made the wings.

I've made the pitters. I've made the breasts. Just quickly, what's your spice preference? Oh, I'm a wimp. I have medium, but sometimes I do have hot. I thought you were going to out yourself as lemon and herb then. Oh, no. Medium's fine.

The look of shame that passed over your face. I was like, oh my God, we're getting a big confession. No, because all my friends have, like, hot and my mom has hot, so I always feel like a wimp saying medium. But sometimes I do get hot, so it just turns out feeling. But I've had everything on the menu, so, you know, if you need me to recommend, I can, you know, let you know. But that's what I've been making. Also, even the stupidest thing, like asparagus, the vegetable, I thought that. That was just for restaurants, but little did I know, you can literally buy it for like one pound and you can eat it at home too. I did not know that.

So good. So nice at this time of year as well. Yeah. Gorgeous and fresh. I want to get some advice from you then before we end. So basically, as you've said, you've totally been there with people who have maybe been in sweatpants or pajamas for a long time during the pandemic. And what about those people who, I don't know, the thought, the same thing that's making you really excited and also making me quite excited, I've also spent way too much money online shopping on pastel flowery things. But the same events that are maybe making us excited are kind of filling those people with dread because it's the thought of what on earth am I going to wear. And that's exacerbating their nerves about kind of meeting up with, meeting up with friends and returning. from to normal life. What advice would you have for those people? I was like that at one point as well because any time the sun was shining and it was really nice outside, I would think, oh no, that means I've got to be productive or like, oh no, that means I've got to go and like see people because

there's so, like on social media and stuff, especially when the weather's nice, everyone's doing everything and you just feel like, oh my God, I'm at home. Like I'm not doing anything special. but what would I say? I would say like just start going out from now. Just start going to the parks from now. Even if it is by yourself, like get comfortable with your own company before you go looking to other people for like a good time and like don't rely on other people for fun. Don't rely on other people for happiness. Just get comfortable being really independent. That can really, really help. I know that's what's helped me. And also I would just say, try to remember that we have been. locked up for so long and you know you deserve to have a great time and to wear whatever you want just as much as the next person just because you don't have abs just because you haven't

got a six-pack in lockdown because there's that pressure isn't there for people to almost kind of re-emerge yeah I think we're all we're all putting so much pressure on ourselves but I guess yeah something one of something that one of my friends said to me that I thought was really good was she was like just know that no one is no one is judging you against anything everyone's got their own maybe anxieties and nerves about coming out. Everyone's so caught up in their own thing. They're just so happy to see you. Definitely. I feel like June 21st is like the date that we're all waiting for. I feel like people are more excited about like drinking, being with their friends, going out. They're not looking to be fatphobic to anyone. They're not looking to put anyone down.

Of course you get the odd, you know, nasty person here and there. But for the most part, I don't think people are thinking June 21st, can't wait to be fatphobic. Like, do you know what I mean? No. I think everyone, yeah, people are going to be kind and people who just want to have fun and want other people to have fun. Like, just think how the women's toilets are going to be the first night the club's open, like, oh my God.

Can't wait. I'm going to, can't wait to, like, chime in on people's outfits, then also, like, what people should do about their relationship. Yes. Oh, my gosh. I can't wait for it. It's just going to be the best. I keep seeing memes about it and it's like, oh my God, you've been inside my head.

I can't wait to ask everyone where they've been like shopping and stuff. Yes. Think of like the inspiration that you'll get as well when I guess we've only really been getting it from, I don't know, like social media or what friends are posting. It's not the same, it's not the same is it? No. Oh, do you know what? Even you describing that scene has got me so excited. What do you think your look's going to be?

Oh my gosh. I don't know. I need to like decide where I'm going because I feel like if, you know, we keep going in this positive way, there's going to be about like, like 20 different events. I'm going to need outfits for every single one. So I don't know. It's too hard to decide just yet. But I definitely,

I really love pastel colours at the moment. Like the lilacs and the yellows and stuff like that. I'm really excited for that. So yeah. Really joyful. It's super joyful. And I guess, yeah,

something if people are feeling, I don't know, almost quite disconnected from their wardrobes and not knowing, not knowing what they should look for. And yeah, they're kind of stuck in this kind of lever's hoodie leggings mode. What would be your advice for them in terms of kind of falling back in love with fashion?

I would say why not try something that's really out of your comfort zone? Just completely throw yourself in the deep end and you might enjoy it or love it more than you ever expected. And then that will kind of spur you on to just like do more and like to get out of your hoodies even more. Who knows? Like have a play. Yeah, definitely have a play. Wonderful. Oh, well, Sunny, it was so great to chat to you.

Thank you so much for coming on Mission Confidence. Thanks for having me. You've been listening to Model and Body Positiveity Advocate Sunny Turner on Mission Confidence, a special edition of the Going for Goal podcast sponsored by Phillips that's designed to help you on your body confidence journey. Mission Confidence has been created as part of our Project Body Love initiative, and we'll be back next week. Tune in then.