Zesty Interview with I Am Dani Adriana

Danielle is the totally badass founder of the I Am Dani Adriana - (formerly known as Choose Life Warrior) blog and community, and she’s paving the way for curvy women to feel strong, valued, and worthy.

With over 96K followers on Instagram she has an impressive following, and is inspiring curvy queens all over the world to be strong in the face of adversity and to learn to love themselves.

I was so excited to interview Dani recently, she's a total zesty babe in our Fierce Cap paired with the Cross My Heart Top and the Nice Stems Leggings.

Hi Danielle, welcome to The Zesty Blog!  You’ve done some amazing things with your forum, and you’ve inspired so many women out there and given them hope and support. I’d love to know how you got started with Choose Life Warrior and built this amazing community, tell us how it all came about?

For me, Choose Life Warrior started as an Instagram blog dedicated to eating disorder recovery. Through the past 5 years I have learnt so much more about body positivity, fat activism, self-love, advocating for mental health and more. It is an ever-growing community which I feel so passionate about. Above all, I try to offer safe spaces for women particularly those trying to escape the barrage and awfulness of body shaming, diet culture and self-hate.

Could you give some advice for anyone who wants to become a blogger or fashion reviewer, but is scared to post photos of themselves online, what do you do when trolls make nasty comments?

My biggest advice would be just start and learn along the way! The longer you put it off the more anxiety surrounds it. You’ve got to make sure you have a strong support system offline as yes sometimes the online world of blogging especially in the plus size realm is super negative with many trolls. However, for me the good outweighs the bad – there are so many people out there who will support you so I would just say GO FOR IT!

Discrimination against plus size people is a major problem, it’s one of the remaining socially acceptable forms of discrimination across the whole world and we would love to see it end. What are some ways we can all help change society’s perception of viewing larger people so negatively?

The biggest way is supporting plus sized people online and offline. Learn to recognise your own body biases towards larger people. Advocate for them where you can, show them kindness and listen to their experiences. Above all make sure you are surrounding your online follow list with a diverse range of fat bodied people. Like all marginalised groups fat people come in many heights, shapes, jobs and personalities. Fat people like all people deserve respect, love and decency. On a practical level to support plus sized people you can ask brands to become inclusive of larger size ranges, you can call out people in your life when they make fat jokes, you can engage and follow, read and share content from amazing fat activists around the world.

Imagine the fashion, beauty, modelling and advertising industries are here right now, what would you say to them?

I would say listen. Just listen to women from all diverse backgrounds. We no longer want to be told what to do, what to wear, who to aspire to look like. We want real diversity in skin tone, sizing, abilities, background, culture and more. We want to be treated like the smart, savvy, amazing and diverse women we are. Please know if you’re not already delivering something worthy of us you won’t be around for long. Were here and were no longer buying into self-hate as a marketing strategy!

What advice would you give to other curvy women about looking good and feeling fierce, even when they face negativity?

Find what makes you happy and find other people who look like you on the internet you can confide in. Plus sized groups on Facebook, Instagram and more are out there. You do not have to feel alone or alone in your pain. We are waiting for you! We are here! You are wonderful the way you are – society as a whole just needs to catch up. However, while you’re waiting for that come make fat positive friends!

You recently hosted a Body Positive event in beautiful Cairns, Australia, how did that go, and what’s next on the horizon for Choose Life Warrior?

The body positive event I held was an emotional whirlwind and something I was really proud to achieve. Just bringing a diverse group of women to celebrate themselves and to educate on the topics of body positivity was a dream come true for me. On the horizon I am currently working to re-brand some aspects of Choose Life Warrior including my name. While it was something so personal and meaningful when I started Instagram 5 years ago I have continued to grow and I think moving forward in a positive direction of change and suitable re-direction of my name may be something that will occur soon. (Note: the new name is: I Am Dani Adriana).

Also, I hope to continue writing possibly delving into creative writing with in particular positive fat characters. I also want to one day host a body positive retreat in Australia, more events and travelling around the world to connect on a one on one basis with the people who have supported me over the years.

Last question - which celebrity would you love to have a cocktail with, and what would you be having?

The celebrity I would most like to have a cocktail with is Michelle Obama. I think she is eloquent, smart, funny and looks like she would be amazingly kind. One thing I would like to discuss with her is how we can make health a more inclusive, body positive and weight neutral conversation and the importance of body image for young women particularly when pressured to deal with the onslaught of the measurement of weight and how that is so narrowly defined. I would have a mojito and I would like to think Mrs. Obama would have a something fancy like an old fashioned scotch neat on the rocks. She’d be a damn badass.

Thank you so much Danielle for chatting with us and giving us your insights, you’re such a beautiful person and we wish you all the success in the world.

Zesty Babes, hit that SHARE button and get this out there on Facebook and Twitter. We all need to spread the message that plus size discrimination is on the way out and it’s time for it to stop, so please share this blog and spread the word – we can all do our part to change people’s perceptions.

Check out Dani over at her awesome new website for "I Am Dani Adriana" here: https://iamdaniadriana.com/ & sign up to her kick-ass blog, don’t forget to grab your free downloads while you’re there.

Loved what Danielle’s wearing? Check it out here and make sure you join the Zesty Babes Tribe at the bottom of this page to get your 10% off discount code!