A plus size woman has become an internet sensation after encouraging people to be confident in their own body.
Laura Ferry initially set up a blog to help people in bigger bodies and now has 147,000 followers on her Instagram page 'WhatLauraLoves'. The 34-year-old, who wears a size 24-26, works with retailers such as Pretty Little Thing and River Island to show people what clothing looks like on her body.
Laura, who lives in South Shields, South Tyneside, has also opened up about her experience of having smear tests, flying on an aeroplane and getting beauty treatments as a plus size woman. She said she's had a positive reaction amongst followers with people telling her they have changed their lives for the better.
Laura, who also has 8,639 followers on TikTok, said: "My whole life I have felt feelings of shame and feelings of not being worthy. I have always felt I needed to lose weight, and change who I was, to become someone who was beautiful and worthy and to be able to live my life.
"My life began when I stopped caring about that people thought and started caring about what I thought. I'm not scared to wear a bikini because I deserve to feel the sun on my skin.
"There's nothing wrong with feeling beautiful and making the most of who you are. I'm about building up people's self confidence so they feel so good in what they're wearing that they don't care about what anybody else thinks.
"I'm basically a walking catalogue. I tell people what the item is like, what they look like on my body and how I have styled it. I can build my confidence and feel good about myself and you can as well. I'm a big believer in self development.
"I'm all about change. If people want to lose weight, gain weight, run a marathon go for it but love who you are today."
Laura said she was slim as a child and began to comfort ate while at junior school. She said her confidence was impacted by activities in lessons which included ranking herself against other pupils by height and weight.
While she was working in banking 13 years ago, she decided to set up her own blog. It initially concentrated on beauty products rather than plus size fashion. However she incorporated clothing after realising there was a need amongst others.
Laura said: "I was one of the first plus size bloggers in the UK. It was a way of connecting with people about beauty products as I wasn't body confident. I started to build my confidence and I realised there were other people out there who looked like me and wanted to dress the same as their size 10 friends.
"Online shopping still wasn't that big at the time. As time went on Instagram developed and everything changed for me. In around 2016 or 2017 I stopped using social media to promote my website and used it as my website. It's only really been since 2018 that I've been able to make my income from Instagram."
During the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, when people were forced to stay at home, Laura gained a large number of followers. However she said the number of people trolling her also increased. The following year she she decided to undergo therapy in the form of counselling, which has helped her.
The confidence advocate said: "During the pandemic, I woke up to messages telling me to 'kill myself' and I will get covid and die from it. It was a really tough time to be able to speak about fashion.
"I asked people what they wanted to see and if they just want me to do normal content. They said yes, they wanted the escapism. Then I had people saying 'people are dying and you're speaking about false tan'. You couldn't win.
"People aren't born racists, homophobic or fatphobic, they've learnt it. I grew up in a time where if you didn't look like Kate Moss when you weren't beautiful. Women would speak negatively about their bodies in front of their daughters.
"If someone chooses to say something horrible it says far more about them then it does about me. Most of the time it comes from a place of insecurity in themselves. If I read a negative comment I immediately read one that's neutral or positive. I'm lucky that I'm surrounded by people that are really positive, they keep my feeling good."
In 2021, Laura was offered the chance to appear on BBC programme 'I can see your voice'. She agreed to do the show to test her confidence and appeared in season two of the show, which aired on TV in December last year. She said: "I felt so proud of myself when I did it."
Over the years, Laura has also helped other people to overcome their fears. In 2018, she opened up about delaying her smear test due to concerns about the shape and size of her stomach and received a huge response.
Laura, who previously wanted to be a barrister, said: "I went on Instagram Live and I did a six minute video speaking about how I had put my first smear test off for 18 months. I was so self conscious of my stomach.
"That kick started my following. I had someone message me saying she had never had a smear test in her adult life and she had gone for one. She said 'Thank you, I would never have gone if I had not seen this video'.
"When it came to the covid vaccines I spoke about being called up early because of my BMI and medication. People reached out to say they felt so much shame as people had pinpointed they were going early because they were bigger. I also did a video about flying when you are plus size."
Laura said she does a lot of consultancy with fashion brands who want to be inclusive. However she has written into her contract that she won't allow her appearance to be changed. She said: "I'll never take money for anything I don't believe in. The person they see on my page is the same person they will see walking down the street."
She has urged people to protect their mental health by only following people on social media who make them feel good. She said: "If you look at my page and feel anything other than happy when you see it, don't follow me."
Laura, who is proud of her North East roots, plans to continue creating her content in the region. She said: "South Shields suits me very much as it's a community place and every supports each other. I think when you're from South Shields, regardless of what you do, you feel like you have got this team behind you.
"I love being from the North East and I want to show that in my content. I want to be able to create content in North East hotels and restaurants and places. If I can support small businesses on my journey then I want to be able to use my platform to do that."
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