Q..At MERABI our Power Women are women who want to make a difference and that’s certainly what you’re doing, to start with can you tell us a bit about your mission.

My mission is to help one billion women fall madly in love with themselves and to get what they want out of life. It’s not about belittling men at all but lifting women up to be equal within the patriarchal society that we live in. It’s about empowering women and lifting them up.

“My mission is to help one billion women fall madly in love with themselves and to get what they want out of life.”

Q..It’s a term you hear a lot but what exactly is self love?

I’ll start by telling you what self love is NOT, self love is not self care. Self love is not just bubble baths and saying “I love my body.” Self love is what comes before self care. Acts of self care like going to the gym, eating well, filling out a gratitude journal, they all take will power, unless you have self love, when you have self love you work on your inner layer and these things just happen. There’s an identity shift after the blocks are removed which stand in the way of love.

Q..Have you always felt this way or can you talk us through your own journey to find self love?

Not at all, I grew up in a family and in a school where people would say “She loves herself” like it’s a negative. I was a plus size model for 14 years and felt constantly in flux, I wanted to be skinny but the agencies wanted me to be bigger, it really messed with my self worth, I felt like I wasn’t good enough as I was and I had a mean inner voice constantly telling me that I wasn’t enough.

In modelling it’s like living in a microcosm of a macrocosm of what happens to all women. We blame ourselves for everything, if clothes don’t fit, if a relationship doesn’t work out. We’re constantly telling ourselves that we should be skinnier or curvier.

I was studying nutrition while working in NYC and I was always really busy - working, partying, everything. It got to a point where I was numbing myself with alcohol and just by keeping busy all the time and working to please other people so I thought enough is enough. I quit it all, I quit modelling, I quit friendships that weren’t right for me and I quit dating. I became celibate and vegan and cleared out space in my life for something different. I got the signs from the universe -I don’t need to change. It’s profound but so simple and that’s what I teach to my ladies now.

You don’t need to have self love to have a happy relationship, but when you have true self love that can give your relationship and out-of-this-world kind of ultimate and healthy love.

Q..Have you always felt this way or can you talk us through your own journey to find self love?

Not at all, I grew up in a family and in a school where people would say “She loves herself” like it’s a negative. I was a plus size model for 14 years and felt constantly in flux, I wanted to be skinny but the agencies wanted me to be bigger, it really messed with my self worth, I felt like I wasn’t good enough as I was and I had a mean inner voice constantly telling me that I wasn’t enough.

In modelling it’s like living in a microcosm of a macrocosm of what happens to all women. We blame ourselves for everything, if clothes don’t fit, if a relationship doesn’t work out. We’re constantly telling ourselves that we should be skinnier or curvier.

I was studying nutrition while working in NYC and I was always really busy - working, partying, everything. It got to a point where I was numbing myself with alcohol and just by keeping busy all the time and working to please other people so I thought enough is enough. I quit it all, I quit modelling, I quit friendships that weren’t right for me and I quit dating. I became celibate and vegan and cleared out space in my life for something different. I got the signs from the universe -I don’t need to change. It’s profound but so simple and that’s what I teach to my ladies now.