Not many people can say that stumbling across an island full of influencers in Fiji changed the trajectory of their life. But New Plymouth plus-size model Megan Wright can.
The content creator was on a solo island getaway in 2019, weeks after being dumped on Valentine’s Day, when she was approached by New Zealand-born influencer Riley Hemson, who has amassed more than 640,000 Instagram followers as a plus-size model.
The Gold Coast-based influencer told Megan how great she looked in her bikini and that approach sparked a life-changing conversation.
“Riley asked if we could take a photo together and I’d followed her for ages on Instagram, so I was just trying to stay cool and not be a fan girl,” laughs Megan, who was born in South Africa and moved to Aotearoa at 16. “I was like, ‘Thank you, sure.’ It meant a lot because my whole life I’ve really struggled with body-image issues.”
Admiring Riley’s confidence, Megan admitted she often stressed about what people thought when she wore a bikini out in public.
“Riley told me we can’t afford to spend our lives worrying what people think. We have to live for ourselves and make ourselves happy,” smiles Megan, who is a qualified nail technician. “I thought, ‘Why can’t I do the same thing?’ It changed the way I viewed my body and my own self-worth.”
From a young age, Megan received comments from peers that made her question her body. She recalls never seeing plus-sized women in the music videos she loved. “I wasn’t a big child, just on the chubbier side, but I was made to believe I was.”
When her primary school ran a fashion show, Megan joyfully graced the catwalk in a new ruffled denim mini-skirt, despite being told modelling wasn’t for “girls like you”.
Megan explains, “When I was about 10, my great-grandmother told me not to worry because she knew lots of other girls my age who looked pregnant. That hurt – no kid deserves to hear that at any age. Then there were comments about my weight while I was at school.”
Megan’s self-esteem plummeted. When her parents decided to relocate to New Zealand 11 years ago, it only worsened her self-esteem.
“To come over, my whole family and I had to pass a health check. Our BMIs had to be below a certain number, otherwise you would’ve had trouble clearing our medicals,” she remembers. “They basically told me I was morbidly obese, but I was wearing size 10 to 12! We all had to go on diets.”
By 17, Megan was starving herself with one apple a day for a dinner. She had no energy and was plagued by headaches.
“I remember people not even wanting to hang out with me because I had such low energy and constantly felt ill,” she says. “I just wasn’t healthy.”
But at 22, Megan started getting into healthy eating and fitness. She joined a mentoring programme led by Kiwi fitness trainer and entrepreneur Josef Rakich. The Fiji trip was part of that.
“I really wanted to go and asked my boyfriend at the time if he wanted to come,” she says. “He was keen, so I booked tickets for it in advance.
“After he broke up with me, just weeks before the trip, the organiser was like, ‘Nah, stuff this guy’, cancelled his side of the trip and upgraded mine!”
Despite her initial nerves at travelling alone, Megan left Fiji with new friends and a desire to put herself out there as a model.
“I signed up to be in a runway show for Taranaki Women’s Refuge and ended up loving it!” enthuses Megan. “Another model happened to be the marketing manager for our local mall. She messaged one day to ask me to be part of their campaign shoot. I was like, ‘Oh, my God, yes!’ I remember driving past the mall as a teenager and seeing a big poster of a girl I went to school with. I wanted to be that model one day, but I didn’t think I’d be pretty enough. Just being asked felt simply amazing.”
Now Megan models for brands including City Chic and You&All, and is part of a freelance modelling agency.
“I started posting more of my outfits on social media and brands noticed me,” she recalls. “The first was City Chic and I was over the moon. I recently became a contributor for the Mys Tyler Fashion app, which is like a cross between Instagram and a dating app! You can search people the same height, shape, cup and shoe size as you, and find outfits based on what they’re posting.”
With every modelling job she accepts, Megan’s confidence continues to grow.
“I’m a lot happier with myself and my body now, but it has taken time. I sometimes still care what people might think. However, most of the time, I’m like, ‘Screw it!’ Women deserve to love ourselves a bit more. Especially those who are plus-size!”
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