Meet the PP Founders - Emma K

I won’t bore you too much with going all the way back to the beginning because from what I have heard, I was a rather boring baby.

My name is Emma or Em for short, I’m 25 years old, 6ft tall and 19 stone and dare I say it, I think I am pretty awesome sometimes.

Right from an early age, it was quite obvious that I was going to take after my dad and be tall. By the age of 14, I was 6ft tall and I stopped growing. It was at this point my life took a turn.
Being taller than most of the school I became the victim of bullies, everywhere I went, I was bullied due to my height, I had people sing ‘ho ho ho, green giant’ everywhere I went, I was tormented with the generic ‘what’s the weather like up there’ comments. This finally started to take a toll on me and I hated myself. The only thing that kept me sane was my sports, I was and still am an avid hockey player and I played Netball at school and I was bloody good! Unfortunately, when I was 16, I sustained a knee injury which turned my life upside down, I spent 8 months on crutches not being able to walk and the doctors not knowing what was wrong with me. I wasn’t allowed to play sport, the one and only thing that got me out of bed and kept me going.

By the time I was about 18, I was still injured, I unfortunately fell into what I now know to be a depression, I comfort ate ALL the time and within the space of about 6 months, I had gone from a size 12 to a size 28 and weighing 26 stone. All I saw when I looked in the mirror was a beast, a real-life version of Godzilla, I couldn’t stand the sight of myself but to the rest of the world, I was fine, I was just Emma, the awkward happy fat girl.

Due to my low self-esteem and lack of confidence, I thought I was unlovable, who would want me, a big fat giant slob, so when someone came into my life, I thought ok, maybe I’m not that bad, but that person who I trusted and who I cared for was not the person I thought they were and suddenly our relationship took a turn for the worse, due to various things that happened in the relationship, I became a shy timid person who was so insecure and broken inside that I didn’t even recognise myself anymore, I was just the shell of a person. I fell even further into a depression. It was at this point in my life that I began to self-harm, I wanted so badly to punish myself for everything I was. It is a choice in my life which yes, I do regret, but at the same time I don’t because it has made me who I am now.

I eventually started to diet, I started to do exercise, against the doctor's recommendation (don’t tell them) and I started to lose weight, and as my weight dropped off, I started to get my spark back, my family could see it, my friends could see it but more importantly, I could see it. I found my way out of the darkness and found myself again.

During the next few years I was locked in a constant battle with myself to get back to who I was. By the time I reached 23, I was in a good place, I was in a good job, my knee was being dealt with (still not fixed to this day though), I was playing hockey again, I was volunteering with the RAF Air Cadets, I was HAPPY.

I was still learning to be more confident in myself and believe that I could do what I wanted to when I met Matt, a 5ft5 (ish) Geordie, 7 years my senior and who was just so different to anyone who I had ever met before, he saw me for exactly who I was, he was someone I could be myself around, snorts and all, someone I wasn’t afraid to let in. I could be the ridiculous, geeky, make up free muppet that I am, I could come out with something really silly or really dim (daily occurrence with me) and he would just look at me with his big brown eyes and just by the way he looked at me I could see that he loved me. It was his support, his encouragement, his faith and his confidence in me that I figured out who I was again, I got my spark back, I got my confidence back and to this day he continuous to encourage and support me in all I do, even stripping down to my undies in front of a camera.

So here I stand (well actually I’m sitting down typing), with my stretch marks, my scars and my wobbly bobbly bits, with a group of women who inspire me every day to keep going and keep building who I am and I can get one thing from PP it would be to make a difference to someone, and if person so happens to be the tall girl who hides in the background away from everything, then so be it, that to me is mission accomplished.

Emma K
Founder Member, Model, Pageant Princess & Sporty Girl