Phoenix Arthur was not the girl you'd see in the magazines. She was black, short and plus sized. She never expected people to find her as attractive. She was always insecure about herself. So, when she gets scouted by a modeling agency, it comes as...
Throughout our lives, how many times have we heard that our appearance isn't important? That it's only the inside that counts? Far too many times, if you ask me. The thing is, everyone judges you on your appearance. The first thing they see is your face, your body, ethnicity, not your personality. They judge and stereotype you off the bat because of how you look. I know about this far too well. My name's Phoenix Arthur and this is my story.
I've never been the smallest girl. As a matter of fact, ever since kindergarten, I've been the biggest kid in my grade. I'd get bullied from it so much. Even at such a young age, because I was so big, people assumed all I did was sit around all day and eat. They thought that all that was on my mind was food, food, food. More like anxieties about food and what people would think if you ate certain things.
That was always a concern but when I moved out of New York and into Doe Farm, Kentucky when I was in sixth grade, people were not only judging me off of my appearance but my race. People would always say racist things to me at first. I only had two friends, Anthony Campbell and Elle Harper. They looked the most like me. We were all awkward, chubby, and alone. We all fended for each other. We were The Three Musketeers as we liked to call ourselves. Well, we were until eighth grade, when Anthony moved to Nebraska.
Then, it was just Elle and I. In high school, Elle wanted to become a cheerleader. She tried out for the squad and because of her weight, was a base. Her teammates were mostly prissy popular girls with perfect bodies. They would all make fun of her 24/7. That's when Elle and I had decided to form the bulimia pact. We would get together and eat whatever we wanted and encourage each other to throw up. But there was one condition; we could never, ever tell anyone what we were doing. Sickening, I know. But we wanted to be pretty.
At first, we both lost a lot of weight. I was getting thick and she was getting thin. But it was working. When Elle got a hot enough body, she quit the cheerleading squad because she was too good for them, especially after the way they treated her. Me, on the other hand, did not have much luck. One day, after passing out from a lack of food, I was rushed to the hospital. I spent many months in therapy and almost immediately gained all of the weight back.
So, yeah, to bring it back to my main point, people always judge your appearance. They don't care how nice you are, or funny, or smart, they just care that you're pretty. And if you're not, you'll get eaten alive in this world.
* End of chapter 1! Thank you so much for reading! This story is very near and dear to my heart because I can relate so much to Phoenix. I wrote this because maybe other people feel the same. But no matter what anyone says, remember that you are worth it and beautiful ❤️! But anyway, here's our main cast!
* Phoenix Arthur, 16
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* Shiloh Arthur, 14
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