Maybe body positivity starts from a place of true acceptance &mdash; looking in the mirror and seeing what you have instead of what you lack. Celebrity makeup artist Sylvina "Slo" Lopez and Elite Model Look winner Reins Mika Melitante talk about what it takes to love yourself and your body.

PHOTOGRAPHY Borgy Angeles STYLING Yanna Lopez
&ldquo;I think girls learn to think that being fat is a bad thing through innocuous and insidious ways,&rdquo; says celebrity makeup artist Sylvina Lopez, better known as Slo, in our interview call.
I shift in my seat. Here I was, talking to Slo about body positivity and having a healthy body image. But just moments before this call, I spent a dissatisfied hour in front of my mirror. I was trying to find a way to get my pants to close comfortably over my waist. I had put on weight over this pandemic &mdash; a perfectly normal and natural occurrence &mdash; and I was allowing it to give me grief. I felt like a fraud.
&ldquo;For me, fat isn&rsquo;t a bad word. It never offended me,&rdquo; Slo says. &ldquo;But you&rsquo;d hear people make comments about themselves, [saying things like] &lsquo;I&rsquo;m so fat,&rsquo; and I&rsquo;d be like, oh, that&rsquo;s [apparently] a bad thing for you? And they weren&rsquo;t really even all that big to begin with. We treat the word &lsquo;fat&rsquo; like a taboo, like it&rsquo;s something that shouldn&rsquo;t be said at all.&rdquo;
&nbsp;

Dress (worn backwards) and sweater, both H&M

Slo, one of the most sought-after makeup artists of her generation and known for the highly creative, unique looks she creates, is one-half of the faces of #HMForAll, an HM.com campaign promoting their inclusive sizing. Their clothing lines now run in nine sizes &mdash; from XXS to 4XL &mdash; and include a petite range for people shorter than 5'3&rdquo;. It&rsquo;s an acknowledgment by a big fashion retailer that embraces diversity, letting people come exactly as they are.
Slo tells me that she grew up in a supportive environment. &ldquo;My perspective on body image was a bit different from most people. I wasn&rsquo;t told that my value was in my body,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t made to feel like I was ugly or anything, and that was very valuable for me.&rdquo;
While Slo is a makeup artist first, she&rsquo;s also an occasional plus-size model. She has been doing it on the side in a more official capacity since 2019. But she recalls an experience back when she was still in college where she was invited to model. &ldquo;This was back in 2010 maybe, and the experience showed me that maybe the local market wasn&rsquo;t ready yet for a real plus-size body, one that wasn&rsquo;t on an older or pregnant woman,&rdquo; Slo remembers.
&ldquo;During that shoot, the stylist didn&rsquo;t bring the right size for me. The thing with bigger bodies is that stylists don&rsquo;t know how to style bigger bodies,&rdquo; Slo recalls. &ldquo;They were trying to make me look older, more corporate. They even straightened my hair. You could tell they weren&rsquo;t happy with the photos, and I wasn&rsquo;t happy with the way I modeled.&rdquo;
Which is why when she was invited to model again in 2019, she was a little nervous, worried that the experience would turn out like her last modelling gig. At the end of it all, though, she was surprised at how honest the whole thing was, at how much they didn&rsquo;t try to change her or fit her into a certain mold.&nbsp;
&ldquo;People want to see bodies they can relate to,&rdquo; Slo tells me. &ldquo;And I&rsquo;m really not maarte about my body. I don&rsquo;t feel the need to have it edited. I really don&rsquo;t mind showing everything as is&hellip; People always want to hide you or make you smaller in various ways. They make comments about your weight or don&rsquo;t offer clothes in your size. This makes you want to hide and maybe make your body smaller.&rdquo;
&ldquo;When I saw the items [offered by HM.com], I was so happy about how far the sizing extended along both sides of the spectrum and how many different pieces were offered,&rdquo; Slo says, referring to HM.com&rsquo;s extensive lineup, which ranges from basics to statement options. &ldquo;It felt like a step forward in terms of accessibility was made in the local sphere for sure.&rdquo;
It&rsquo;s one thing to tell someone to &ldquo;love and accept your body&rdquo; and another to put it in practice. While the term &ldquo;body positivity&rdquo; was coined in the 2000s, it finds its origins in the fat acceptance movement which goes <a href="http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1913858,00.html">as far back as 1969</a>. But even with over 50 years of movements advocating for the acceptance of all kinds of bodies (weight, height, and race), not to mention increased representation and visibility, we still have some ways to go.&nbsp;

ON MIKA: Dress and boots, both H&M. ON SLO: Top and pants, both H&M

A 2020 study found that <a href="https://jech.bmj.com/content/75/4/343">6 out of 10 British adolescents</a> experienced body dissatisfaction, a trend that mirrored the social media boom. Another key finding of the study found that there was a correlation between body dissatisfaction in adolescence and the onset of depression in adults.&nbsp;
An inquiry by the British parliament noted that <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/work/226/changing-the-perfect-picture-an-inquiry-into-body-image/">a third of adults feel anxious or depressed</a> about their body image. <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5801/cmselect/cmwomeq/805/80502.htm">An informal survey</a> they conducted found that this problem had worsened over lockdown. Both studies highlighted the role of social media and the lack of diversity as part of the problem.
&nbsp;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;
Twenty-one year old model Reins Mika Melitante&mdash;the other half of the #HMForAll campaign &mdash; has been modelling professionally for five years. She pursued modelling at 16, training with the Philippine Models Association of the Philippines (PMAP) and the agency Farah Models. Last year, she won first prize in the Digital Creators category of <a href="https://www.elitemodellook.com/int/en/finalists-2020/digital-creators/mika/index.htm">Elite Model Look 2020</a>, helmed by the prestigious modelling agency that has Cindy Crawford, Giselle B&uuml;ndchen, and Kendall Jenner in their roster. She was the only Filipina and Asian in the competition.
Like Slo, Mika grew up in a supportive environment. Her mom &mdash; who she credits as her lifeline and &lsquo;momager&rsquo; &mdash; helped her lean into the profession. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s kind of like, she wanted me to do what she couldn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; Mika recalls. &ldquo;When she was growing up, she couldn&rsquo;t do things like wear certain clothes to school because the values were different. I&rsquo;m lucky to be where I am now.&rdquo;
But puberty and a school environment can be a lot more ruthless. She recalls a time when she wanted to join a pageant at her school, then one of her classmates pointed out that she wouldn&rsquo;t make it because she didn&rsquo;t have the right body for it.
&ldquo;Back then, I was skinny, and my body wasn't super curvy,&rdquo; Mika recalls. &ldquo;Then one of the guys in my class told me, &lsquo;you won&rsquo;t get in, you need to have a body like hers,&rsquo; and then he pointed at another girl who was more voluptuous, with bigger boobs and all. I was shocked at how this guy was very specific about bodies, and that I had to have a certain kind.&rdquo;

Sweater, pants, and sandals, all H&M

But instead of allowing the comment to crawl under her skin, she chose to lean into what she had. She looked up to models like Devon Aoki, Estelle Chen, and Fei Fei Sun &mdash; faces that she could relate to.&nbsp;
&ldquo;It really helps to see people who look like me make it. The more I see Asian representation in social media, the more I get empowered to love myself&hellip;When we see society representing us, then it feels good,&rdquo; she says.
&ldquo;But how do you make sure you&rsquo;re still you?&rdquo; I ask. In an industry where you&rsquo;re often the canvas for someone else&rsquo;s work &mdash; a makeup artist, stylist, designer, photographer, producer, scriptwriter, director &mdash; how do you keep your autonomy? How do you make sure your body is still yours?
&ldquo;Modelling isn&rsquo;t easy. It&rsquo;s like after the makeup, the clothes, everything, it isn&rsquo;t your body anymore,&rdquo; Mika says. &ldquo;Sometimes I feel like I&rsquo;m close to something like burnout when I wonder: who am I in this process?&rdquo;
&ldquo;When I joined Elite Model Look, they told me that a lot of it boils down to personal brand,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;Social media is a way for you to take control of that identity. You might not always have a say in the final output, but thankfully we&rsquo;re at a time where I get to control what I want to show. [You can control] how you speak and how you stand for something.&rdquo;&nbsp;
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Just last June, <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5gd99/norway-law-forces-influencers-to-label-retouched-photos-on-instagram">Vice reported</a> that the country of Norway passed into a law a new set of regulations requiring advertisers and influencers to declare whether or not their photos had been digitally manipulated or retouched.
&ldquo;Advertisements where a body&rsquo;s shape, size, or skin has been retouched &mdash; even through a filter before a photo is taken &mdash; will need a standardized label designed by the Norwegian Ministry of Children and Family Affairs,&rdquo; reads the report.&nbsp;
Some critics of the measure say that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/photo-edit-social-media-norway/2021/07/08/f30d59ca-df2c-11eb-ae31-6b7c5c34f0d6_story.html">it won&rsquo;t be enough</a> to solve the harmful effects of impossible beauty standards. The goal, however, is to hopefully foster &ldquo;fair, accountable and ethical online advertising," says a government spokesperson, and to curb the rise of various mental health problems related to eating disorders and anxiety.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Even if a lot of the slim-thick trend is performative, at least the language is finally there,&rdquo; Slo says. &ldquo;Representation is a lot better. That wasn&rsquo;t around for me and my family when I was growing up.&rdquo;

ON SLO: Turtleneck, skirt, and crop top, all H&M. ON MIKA: Sweaters (one worn as skirt) and crop top, all H&M

She tells me about how there wasn&rsquo;t always a body in mainstream media that she could relate to. Even if there were plus size girls, they were often white, with carefully styled hair. Back then, no one her size had her Chinese features or kinky, curly locks.
&ldquo;If someone feels seen because they can relate to my body, then that&rsquo;s great,&rdquo; Slo says. &ldquo;Vicarious confidence is really a thing. If this person can be confident in their body, then maybe I can too.&rdquo;
&ldquo;I never thought of myself as a kind of advocate for body positivity,&rdquo; Slo tells me as we wrap up our interview. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s really not something I&rsquo;m hiding. I&rsquo;m neither loud or outspoken, but we often see this idea of an &lsquo;ideal face&rsquo; on social media, and I hate that. I would hate for beauty to ever be seen as homogenous.&rdquo;
&ldquo;The advice I&rsquo;d give to young girls is to be inspired but not over-inspired,&rdquo; Mika says. &ldquo;It becomes a problem when you start to compare yourself, to think you&rsquo;re not enough. We&rsquo;re living in a time when we&rsquo;re finally getting real Asian representation, and we should celebrate that.&rdquo;
&ldquo;I love my body. I think that&rsquo;s what matters most,&rdquo; Mika says. &ldquo;And I think modelling has actually given me more confidence in my own body. Whenever I do a pose, and I see how it comes out in a photo, it really gives me a boost.&rdquo;
During our interview, I told Slo about the difficulty of this assignment for me on a personal level. How hard it was to feel &mdash; at the ripe age of 30 &mdash; like my body was disgusting. That after all it had done to bring me to where I am today, to (so far) surviving this pandemic, I look at myself and only see everything my body isn&rsquo;t, what it lacks, and how far I am from what I want.
&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s exactly that,&rdquo; says Slo. &ldquo;A lot of people probably feel the way you do, but they don&rsquo;t often say it out loud, and I get it.&rdquo;
&ldquo;I think body positivity can be a bit loaded because it borders on trendy. I think we have to go back to acceptance,&rdquo; Slo tells me. She tells me it&rsquo;s about seeing your body for what it is, taking a good look in the mirror, and shifting your mindset away from the desire to change or hide parts of yourself that you think will make others feel uncomfortable."

ON MIKA: Pajama top and pants, both H&M. ON SLO: Dress and pajama top, both H&M

&ldquo;I think I just decided early on that I wasn&rsquo;t going to feel miserable about my weight,&rdquo; Slo tells me. &ldquo;If you want me to be thinner to make you feel more comfortable about my body, I was like whatever, I&rsquo;m going to wear baggy clothes, clothes that are &lsquo;unflattering' and&nbsp;super colorful, so you cannot miss me.&rdquo;
&ldquo;It felt like a weird rebellion, but it was extremely liberating,&rdquo; Slo goes on. &ldquo;And the thing is, people didn&rsquo;t have anything bad to say about it either. So really, you can never please other people because they will always have something to say. So make yourself happy! Wear that dress you&rsquo;ve always been scared to wear.&rdquo;
&ldquo;So many conversations with women, about women, amongst other women, focus a lot on what we lack, our shortcomings. I&rsquo;ve noticed guys don&rsquo;t talk like this. I want us to start talking about the things we do have.&rdquo;

PRODUCER Yanna Lopez CREATIVE DIRECTOR Danyl Geneciran MAKEUP&nbsp; Sylvina Lopez (for Slo), Noel Inocencio (for Mika) HAIR (for Slo and Mika) Noel Inocencio&nbsp; SET DESIGN Paul Jatayna VIDEO DIRECTOR Edrey Biteng

Sylvina Lopez and Reins Mika Melitante Do Not Care What You Think About Their Bodies

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