During the Edmonton Natural Hair Show last week, Empowered Me took people on a journey through the link between inner and outer beauty. Becoming comfortable in one’s own skin is no small feat and Empowered Me’s owner and coach, Harriet Tinka, shared her personal journey towards high self-esteem.

When Harriet was only a teenager, she was approached to do some modelling by a local modeling agency. The agency encouraged her to embrace her exotic look and she quickly found success in local and overseas markets as a runway model. As a young woman, her self-esteem and self-confidence grew with the new-found success she was experiencing. With everyone around her telling her how beautiful she was and enjoying a career in haute couture, her self-confidence in her ability to model grew.

As her self-confidence in modeling grew, however, her self-esteem began to take a beating. It became increasingly important for her looks to take priority over what she was feeling or thinking inside. Her looks were what mattered to those in the industry and she quickly began to feel less than perfect.

Once Harriet took a stand against not compromising her beliefs for someone else’s, she once again started to feel more confident. She was auditioning for a show, and the agency loved her look except they wanted to change her hair to make her fit in like the rest of the women in the show. When she said no, they didn’t want her in the show anymore but she understood that her principles were more important than her appearance. What an empowering time for her!

This is a common journey for many people. When we’re young, we gain confidence in the things we are able to do. Our self-esteem also grows as we receive praise and compliments. However, there are some behaviours that then cause us to lose self-esteem, despite our confidence.

In life, we often are forced to make decisions between what we believe and what others want you to believe. For someone with strong self-esteem, these choices may seem easy. For others, it’s not as easy. Harriet’s lesson is not “faking it until you make it”, but rather “practice it, until you believe it!” The more you practice what you believe, the more confident you will be.

We hope you take this advice to heart on your journey to feeling empowered. If you need help finding tools to help you find that self-esteem, Empowered Me has a number of empowerment programmes available for families and schools.

Please watch the following video that takes you through some of Harriet’s journey to learning self-esteem.