As it’s mental health awareness day I wanted to share some wisdom I gained from knowing what a dark mental state of mind feels like. I have experienced first hand and witnessed people around me, go through all types of mental health struggles.It’s a lonely place to be. So I hope by sharing this it may make you feel a little less alone if you are going through something similar. Sharing the last 3 images is difficult for me. I feel exposed. When I look at the girl in those images I see pain, struggle, vulnerability and loneliness. I know this girl so well, but yet I feel like I’m someone entirely different now. Being involved with the fashion industry from a young age had hard wired me into be believing that if I wasn’t a certain measurement I would be a failure. Failure for me was not an option so I took the Criticism on board “loose one more inch” “have a breast reduction” “just don’t eat for the next few days”... you get the idea. I ended up loosing my female hormones and felt stripped of my identity as a woman. I lost my curves and I lost my mind. I was numb and felt like I was in a constant state of anxiety. I shut people out, and I closed in.. my mind was riddled with awful thoughts. After years of neglecting my body, and Mind. I was told I may not be able to have Children. This was my rock bottom. I now had to choose the career I had focused on for years, or make a change, and risk never working in this industry again. I knew it had to be the latter. It was extremely difficult to get my female hormones back But nowhere near as difficult as it was to heal my mind. This was the part I didn’t realise I had neglected most. I put the image of myself as little Penny because I learnt a technique that helped change the way I spoke to myself, or the decisions that I make. I encourage you to find an image of yourself as a little boy/girl and ask yourself would you talk to them the way you speak to yourself? Or if you we’re taking care of them as a guardian, would you be making the same decisions you are making for yourself now? When you look at yourself through the eyes of your child you’ll see you start to talk much more lovingly towards yourself.