Translator: Elena Puccini Reviewer: Denise RQ
Thank you, everybody.
I have to first apologize
If I couldn't remember anything I want to say
because I've been running in the past two weeks,
and I really, really need some more endorphins.
So If I forget or if you don't know what I am talking about, I'm sorry.
Did you ever look into the mirror and think to yourself
you wish you could just change something you don't like about yourself?
(Audience) Yeah, yes.
Bertha Chan: Thank you.
Well, some of us want to change everything about ourselves.
It's because society tell us
that we are not up to its beauty standard;
we're either always too fat,
too thin, too short, too dark, too much, or not enough.
But why do we let others decide on what is good for our body or not?
We're never taught to embrace ourselves
and love who we are,
but we need to do that.
And I am here to tell you
that you need to love yourself.
In our society, we're taught to stigmatize people
for their look,
for the way they look;
we stigmatize people's social or health status
just because we look at them and think about what they are;
like being fat.
Being fat to me, now, it's just a word;
it's just one of the many descriptors.
But in this society,
we're taught to use this word as an insult,
to make fun of people.
Because, if you are fat, you have been labeled as weak, lazy,
undesirable, hence, worthless.
I am going to tell you that it's not true.
So a little history about my past.
I was being put on diet pills when I was 12 years old,
I was never happy about my body,
my body weight fluctuated
depending on what kind of diet regime I was on to lose weight.
I have been struggling with food my whole life.
By 20, I --
The first time I wore a dress was when I was 21 years old,
and before that, I looked like this.
Look how happy I am with my rice!
Food was everything in my life.
and apart from food, there was nothing else
because I couldn't find a dress to wear;
I couldn't look pretty.
So, by 21 years old,
I was having only 500 calories a day,
for a period of time.
And 500 calories is about five oranges and one banana.
You can guess, not longer after that, I was being hospitalized,
because my immune system was breaking down.
And so after that,
I stopped telling people that this diet is really good,
I don't recommend it anymore to anybody.
But I look --
Although I look normal, smaller in size,
people think I'm normal on the outside,
but actually, they don't know anything I've been going through.
(Applause)
During the time when I was in the hospital,
I realized that my whole life had been controlled
by how much I cared about how people looked at me,
how much I cared about the way I looked.
I wasted so much time thinking about
and only caring about one thing about myself,
and neglecting everything else, and neglecting my own happiness.
So I vowed to myself at that point,
that I will have a better relationship with myself.
Having said that,
how do you have a good relationship - or even just a better relationship -
if you do not know how to do it?
How do I get from the bottom of self-hatred and self-pity
to become happier?
My transition starts in 2008,
when I started blogging about plus-size clothing;
I talked about where I can find clothes that fits me,
and I feel a lot happier
because I felt like I was helping other people
who felt the same as me,
who have been facing the same difficulty as me.
Although on the outside I look very confident,
on the inside, I'm still the same person
who is very insecure about the way I look,
who couldn't let go my body issue,
and I just couldn't look at myself in the mirror.
But one day, I found Instagram.
Instagram changed my life.
(Laughter)
I stumbled upon on this profile,
of a blonde six-foot-two woman from Canada.
She's really, really tall,
and you can imagine how many men were intimidated by her size.
But she encouraged me and many other girls
to love the body we have no matter how it is like.
After that, there is a whole community
with many, many more body positivity movements
around the world now.
All these girls are telling you to look past what you look like
and just love yourself no matter how you are,
love the body you have no matter how it is
because only this way you can start loving yourself.
Not short after that I've also learned from this psychology paper
by Abraham Maslow, written in 1943,
the "Hierarchy of needs" --
This is the "Hierarchy of needs."
This part is new; before, there was no Internet,
there were no batteries, no Internet.
(Applause)
And so you just look like above here.
So the idea is
once you have all your basic needs fulfilled,
like clothes, water, and food,
you will find safety,
you will be able to care about your body and your health,
and eventually, you can move up to self-love.
In an ideal world,
if there is no shaming, no bullying,
we'll be able to learn to love each other,
we'll be able to encourage each other.
My dream is to have a place
and live in a place
where we live in a diverse culture
where everybody just encourages each other,
and tells each other they're great.
There is a place,
if we can just understand
and accept the fact that everyone is different,
so we would stop bullying each other.
In an ideal world like that,
we will be able to move up to self-love;
if you learn how to love yourself,
you will start doing great things for yourself and for other people.
So my message to you today
is that no matter who you are, no matter what size you are,
no matter where you from, no matter your race,
your color, your gender, or sexual orientation;
the only thing you need to know and remember is to be bold,
be yourself, and love yourself.
Thank you.
(Appluase)