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| Mo Heart is an internationally known drag queen who sashayed to fame on "RuPaul's Drag Race." She's also a recording artist and the owner of the beauty brand MoBeauty. |
| Despite the glitz and glamor of all her success and the visibility it brings, she says it can be hard to push back against entrenched conventional beauty norms. |
| Following a recent Healthline panel on The Beauty of Intersectionality, Heart sat down with us to talk about how sometimes, when faced with a lack of representation, you have to "become your own role model." Check out our favorite quotes from our chat below. |
| *This interview has been edited for length and clarity. |
| Q: | How can representation (or lack thereof) affect how someone sees themselves? | |
| A: Most people wake up in the morning, look at their phones, and they're already seeing images on Instagram and Twitter of what beauty is "supposed" to be, whether through the influencer or the brand. Then, you look at your face, you leave the house, you go to work, and you keep seeing ads, ads, ads. You're just surrounded. |
| I'd go to the store, and my body didn't look like that, my hair didn't look like that, my skin wasn't like that. A lot of these things begin to weigh you down. Also, there was the fact I was queer, and that was not being celebrated. Then I put on weight and had to deal with the way plus-size people are viewed in today's society. It was a lot on my feelings. |
| It's nearly impossible not to start comparing yourself to these images and think, "This is what is wanted, this is what is desired, because if it wasn't, then you would see the opposite." |
| My mother was a beautiful dark-skinned woman, and even today, dark-skinned women are not celebrated; they are celebrated for being so dark but not for being beautiful. |
| Q: | Has the media really become more inclusive? | |
| A: In the area of athleisure, you'll see more curvy girls who aren't just relegated to the plus-size section of the store. Brands are making an attempt. But for many, it's just surface level. |
| Many of today's brands actively say, "We need a Black, we need a femme, we need a trans, we need to make sure that we hit our boxes and a target." While those boxes are being checkmarked, the mainstream market these companies are trying to engage is still, in many ways, the white, middle-class, American mainstream. |
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| Q: | If all these toxic images are constantly around us, how do we push back against their negative influence? | |
| A: When it comes to protecting your mental health, you have to see the vision and see where you want to end up. I'm seeing myself whole, happy, loved, complete, beautiful, desired, and affirmed — all of these things. |
| We live in a FOMO culture, and I think it can help to step back and take a break, even if it's just 2 hours away from social media. Do something productive and constructive. Something that fills you instead of drains you or sucks your time away. |
| Q: | How can self-affirmation help combat toxic messaging and boost self-esteem? | |
| A: I think a lot of us in our 30s are finally starting to heal and be OK with who we are, in understanding, "You know what? I might not be a 10 out of 10 in that group, but in this group, I might be a 25!" |
| I had to learn how to love and affirm myself. That's when I started to lose weight and my skin started to clear up. That's when I took care of myself. |
| I would say it starts with you, and it finishes with you. |
| Q: | What advice or words of support do you wish you could give to your younger self? | |
| A: When thinking back on where I am now and how far I've come in my self-acceptance journey, I'd love to speak to the 12-year-old and 25-year-old versions of myself and say, "You don't have to go through the same bullshit I went through." |
| You don't tear yourself down. You go, "You are beautiful, you are great, you are so smart, you are so strong, you are resilient." Self-affirming statements like these can go a long way toward protecting one's mental health from society's limited view of beauty. |
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