Melbourne based entrepreneur Sherlyn Tan created a $4 million fashion company, from a secondhand clothing brand, called Twenty3AU.
She often poses for photographs in her own clothes, but she does it differently than most of the fashion models do today
“Being the founder of a fashion company, I felt immense pressure to look a certain way. I was very harsh on myself if I thought I was getting fat or didn't feel like I looked pretty enough, that it really took a toll on my mental health,” Sherlyn told online magazine Femail.
She further said that she models for her own store and faces online bullying. “People called me a s**t on Instagram, on Facebook… almost everywhere they could,” Tan added.
According to her, people have said mean things such as, “She has a fat armpit, and she has fat thighs that ruin the outfit. Her expression is silly and ugly.”
Despite such negativity the young entrepreneur chooses to model in the most realistic way possible and by taking “unflattering” poses she shows the fakeness behind Instagram filters, makeup and lighting.
“I totally understand how these young girls feel, and that's what makes my posts relatable. But I also receive private messages every day, thanking me for reminding them that it's okay to not look like what Instagram tells you to look like,” Tan told Femail.
The entrepreneur struggled with her own mental health issues because of cyberbullying and now she posts “real photos” to her 60,000 Instagram followers to show how artificial social media images can be.
Tan says being real on social media also helps remind her that imperfections are okay and part of being human.
