Filipino actress Iza Calzado is changing the show business narrative—one Instagram post at a time
“There was always a feeling of not being enough,” says Iza Calzado.
The Filipino actress has long battled for her physique to be accepted in an industry that allows for very little in the way of diversity.
“I was always bigger than the skinny girls,” she says. “I lost roles because I didn’t have the right body for it, and that just continued to validate the story in my head that I wasn’t thin enough—and because of that, I wasn’t worthy.”
Her experience is far from an anomaly—more than half of girls worldwide don’t have high body esteem. The majority of girls with low body esteem stop themselves eating and actively try to avoid seeing friends and family because of their insecurities, according to the Dove Global Beauty and Confidence Report.
The Filipino custom of commenting on someone's weight, she says, further perpetuates people's obsession with physical appearance. “When you’re greeted and no one is saying [you’ve lost weight], you start thinking: ‘Does that mean I gained weight or does it mean I look good?'" says Calzado. “It’s like a dopamine hit—you want the words to come out to just feel better about yourself. I was starting to get sick and tired of it.”
For Calzado, the issue of weight has always been at the forefront of her mind. She describes transitioning from a young, carefree child to a chubby child and then, finally, to an obese teen. As she grew older and gained more weight, her insecurities intensified.
In high school the social pressure to lose weight to "get the boys' attention” led her down a dangerous path of starvation, diet pills and, eventually, surgery. And while the unhealthy concoction had resulted in a temporary weight drop, it only served to exacerbate mental health issues.
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