Activist Hall of Fame

The Self-Love rEVOLution

‘Self-love’ is to put yourself and your own happiness first, something that deeply lacks in our current society. We have been moulded to live a disconnected and disempowered life, where the only right way to sustain is the society’s way. We are taught that it is not safe to show our true-selves and therefore we begin to detach from our individuality, sacredness and most importantly, our sexuality and true preferences.
#rEVOLution is a campaign on "Self-love" and "Acceptance."
As a part of this campaign, we organised the Global Bubble Parade, are creating a training module, and sharing your stories to inspire change!
You can find some of the stories we've received so far are here!

"Growing up with an alcoholic, emotionally abusive mother and angry father left me feeling constantly worthless and burdened. There was no such thing as “self love” for the first 13 years of my life. Love in my household was dragging my mom, literally, off the ground after a fall she took while drunk, and hauling her to a rehab center. Love in my family was my dad sleeping on my mom’s side of the bed while she was in the hospital so he could feel close to her. There was no time for self love, but only love of the unconditional, bitter tasting kind that I swallowed as a young child because I had no choice. At the age of 13 I started self harming, because I had no notion of “self love”. Blood spilled down the drain, and cuts littered my legs, and boys laughed at me, and my school principal called me into the office, and my parents were furious at me, and my dad yelled some more. And I kept cutting. This was self love for me. The greatest amount of attention that was paid toward my soul was that of which I expressed through a blade on my skin. If my mother used alcohol, I used a blade. I stopped. My mom continued. I kissed a boy I didn’t love because there was no self love, and I grew up ashamed of myself. If my parents could not even take care of themselves, why should I pay any attention to caring for my own well being? I am now 18, my mom has relapsed numerous times, but I have not. My self love is not bubble baths and shopping. My self love is waking up and choosing to worry about myself and what I CAN do, instead of what others can’t. My self love is pursuing my passions and hobbies to physically feel healthy and happy, not to impress. My self love is an unconditional, bittersweet tasting kind that I swallow because I know I must, and this time I am choosing to. "
​- Anonymous
"Self love is definitely something I’m struggling with even today. Loving yourself is extremely difficult when you’re surrounded by so many amazingly talented and gorgeous girls that you constantly feel that you’re not good enough. Even though it’s gonna take me a a long to truly love myself, I will try and hopefully that time comes soon."
- Rithika, Boston
"I’m the most self-critical person I know. I judge myself even in how I say “hi.” I’m not there yet, but I’m trying to get over the small stuff to be the strong, independent Filipino woman I am."
- Anonymous
"My story is that of a girl finding herself when in reality she had no clue who she was. If someone asked me what I identified as a couple years ago I would have answered, just a girl, now I still say that to strangers, but there’s more to me that I keep hidden, I’m a bisexual Latina. These words put together always use to scare me because everyone around me saw it was wrong growing up. But somewhere along the way I met people who accepted me and everything I was and learned that it was ok for me to be this way. I learned to be happy and love myself even if I keep this secret from my family who may never understand, but I’ll have my friends and loved ones by my side."
​- Anonymous
"I never seem to have self confidence and I always think negatively about myself. I never can think “ah I am good at this or this is my talent!” I always think that I’m not good enough or I just can’t be better. However these days I really am trying to become more confident and not care about what others think. I’m trying to learn some new things and read some good books and have a more time for myself for self introspection and really cherish myself."
- Anonymous
"I'm bisexual and my country doesn’t support it, which really sucks a lot because they’re a few really cute bi couples in my school who plan to get married in the future. I have a crush on my dance president but she unfortunately has a girlfriend. It’s all fine though, as long as she’s happy, so am I :). I hope everybody will NOT view pansexual people differently from straight people."
​- Anonymous
"I remember being so confuse about my sexuality and the pressure to put a label on it. But now that I've educated myself I realise how fluid sexuality is. It's not necessary to be under one label it's caging yourself and limiting your diverse personality."
- Anonymous
"It wasn’t easy growing up with a skin condition which almost 2 years later, I have yet to discover how it triggered. Since the moment I've been diagnosed with psoriasis, I became extremely picky about what I wore. I had to wear tights – couldn’t show the psoriasis on my legs, long sleeved everything – couldn’t show the psoriasis on my arms or back, nothing with a sheer material – didn’t want people to see it through the clothes. I developed a tick for brushing my shoulders and checking that there wasn’t anything visible there. I also began to wear make-up that covered the psoriasis on my face and neck. I moisturized a lot. If I were to wear something different or something that was not within my comfort zone I would constantly fret that people were seeing it and judging me. While I don’t blame them for being curious, you’ll be surprised how much being stared at affects your morale and self-esteem. Living with psoriasis is a constant reminder to take care of my body, starting from the inside.It has helped me become more aware of what my body and my mind, in order to live a happier and healthier life. Psoriasis hasn’t limited what I’ve been able to do and achieve, it has only made me push harder. Always, always, always love yourself for who you are; your skin color, your gender, your race/religion, your body, your scars and flaws do not change who you are. Remember to be yourself and not try to duplicate someone because each and every one of you are lovely unique special beings. Don't feel insecure because of your physique; your body is beautiful the way it is. The awareness on psoriasis is better now than it has ever been and I am thankful for that. It took me a long while to overcome my fears and doubts and definitely could not have done it without the help of great friends and family."
- Padma, Bangalore
Well I mean, although I don’t hate my body or anything, there are times I feel insecure and disappointed about my appearance or body. This story isn’t about me though. This isn’t as impactful as those other stories will be, but I want to share this. So my friend is a pre-teen, and her (as well as my) race is Chinese. We have another friend, let’s call her A, and she’s has a slim figure, a good BMI (body mass index) and a big ego. She’s always fat shaming my friend. It has gone on for at least two years, and now we’ve all separated to different schools. Although an incident happened that caused my friend and A not to be on talking terms anymore, my friend is really insecure about her image. She’s in this dance club in her school, but she always tells me that the girls there are skinny and good at dancing, while she’s fat and slow. She’s starved herself you know, because of study stress and being insecure about her body. I’d like all of you to know that you should appreciate your body, whether you’re a boy or a girl. If you’re becoming unhealthy, then of course, you should try and cut down on what’s causing you to add fats to your body. Try and exercise more. However, you shouldn’t let someone bring you down for being fat. This is YOUR body. It’s not theirs, so if their comments and remarks aren’t helpful but instead hurtful, don’t listen.
- Anonymous 
"I grew up as an overweight child, and most of my memories as a child I can remember being very self conscious about it. Even though I was getting exercise every day, I was still very chubby. As I moved on into middle school, the chub went away pretty fast, within a year, but my self consciousness never dissipated. I still felt like I was bigger than everyone and I stood out because of it. However this was not true. I’ve come to realize today that what I see in the mirror is actually me. I am not larger than what I appear to be, and I don’t stick out to people because of some made up image I have of myself in my head. I had been choosing to believe the made up version of myself rather than the truth of what I was seeing in front of me. Nowadays, I am still self conscious about a million other things about my body, but I have learned to accept what I see in the mirror. I no longer make up a different version of myself because that’s how I’ve always thought of myself. I learned to let go of the definition of my body I had created from my childhood and accept the reality of who I am. And if the reality of what I look like doesn’t fit the standards society has set, it doesn’t matter, because it’s my body and those differences make me unique."
- Sarah, San Diego

A PROJECT UNDER MOKSH