Throughout school, Abbie Walsh-Greenfield struggled to accept her body. Growing up in the age of social media and being bigger than many of her friends, she would inevitably compare herself to others on a daily basis, feeling ashamed of her fuller figure.
Dreaming of having the 'perfect' body, she started dieting. When one diet would fail, she would pick up another, as she remained determined to changing how she looked, even into her early twenties.
But then came the moment of realisation that would make her who she is today. The perfect body she was chasing was not realistic at all. Instead, for the first time ever, she knew she could live happily as herself, with no diets, no filters and no shame.
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Abbie has not merely learned to accept herself, she has thrived with it. Today, now 25, she is one of the most successful Welsh creators on TikTok, working as a full-time content creator in partnership with some big-name brands. Her videos on body positivity and plus-size fashion and lifestyle have earned her over 40,000 followers on the platform, while a move into travel content has also seen her made an official TikTok ambassador for Wales.
With many of her clips exploring the challenges she has faced as a plus-size person, Abbie, from Barry, has won a loyal legion of fans, who have praised her honesty and openness. Keep up to date with the latest TikTok videos and trends by clicking here.
However, she admits that she wasn't always honest with herself about her body. Reflecting on how far she has come, she said that she struggled with accepting the way she looked all the way through school, and only truly embraced it a few years ago.
"Throughout school, I always struggled with my body image and I compared myself a lot to other people," she said. "To be honest, I struggled with it all the way up to my late teens and even in to my early twenties.
"In those years, I lost a lot of time to dieting and failing to diet and that became an endless cycle. I didn't realise how much of my time that really consumed until I got older and I looked back on the years prior to that. When I scrolled back through my Instagram account, which I’d had since 2012, there were just so many posts about wanting to lose weight, and I realised how much of my time and energy had been consumed by this idea of having the ideal body, which realistically just doesn't exist."
Having had this moment of realisation, Abbie set up a blog, on which she documented her experiences as a plus-size person as well as her struggles with her body image. However, while she was open with readers about who she was, she knew the pictures she was posting on Instagram, where she now has close to 40,000 followers, weren't telling the full story.
"I'd always really enjoyed writing," she said. "So having a blog was great, it was a way for me to express myself and it was a really important outlet for me. But even though I was speaking about my experiences, I wasn't ready to show myself fully online.
"I'm really open about this with my audience, but I used to photoshop my images all the time when I was younger. So I was writing these blog posts about trying to love myself and my body, but I was still editing my photos.
" Then one day in 2018, I was scrolling through Instagram and saw a post from an influencer called Emma Tamsin Hill. I looked at it and saw a plus-size person just existing unapologetically and I thought: ‘Oh my gosh, that can be me’. That was a lightbulb moment for me really. I realised that actually, I can exist as I am in this moment too."
With her confidence at an all-time high, Abbie set up a TikTok account as an extension of her blog, and quickly grew a large following. The app's algorithm, which automatically presents users with content they are likely to be interested in based off their previous interactions and searches, has also allowed her to efficiently reach her target audience, something which is not always easy on other social media platforms.
"I post a lot of body confidence and fashion content," she said. "But I'm also incredibly interested in Welsh tourism, so I've done a lot more of that sort of stuff lately, exploring towns and cities and visiting castles and other landmarks. I started off just posting a daily vlog (video blog) and people loved it and then it just grew and grew.
" TikTok is a lot more personal than other social media. You can reach so many more people and that’s a wonderful thing. With the way the For You Page works, you can end up on the feeds of people who feel the same way as you do most of the time. Or they could be people who didn’t know that they needed to see my videos until then, that was the case for me.
"There’s no real way to self-edit either, video content is so much more raw and personal, it's not as polished. You can connect with an audience on a completely different level than a static post ever will."
Before long, Abbie was made one of TikTok's official ambassadors for Wales. In this role, she promotes Welsh businesses and showcases where she lives to a potential audience of millions.
"I love where I'm from, so to be able to say I'm an ambassador for Wales and have the platform to showcase it in such a positive way is a real honour," she said. "It has provided me with a lot of opportunities to make connections and promote m country, as I think Wales is often pushed to the side, we're not really highlighted enough in a lot of media.
"My favourite thing to do is to promote local Welsh businesses," she added. "I've worked with big brands too, like Klarna, Carmex, Britney Spears Fragrances and that has been an honour too, of course. But as an ambassador for my country, promoting these independent businesses is at the heart of everything I do, I love it so much."
Having built up a loyal and engaged following, with many of her videos racking up tens of thousands of views, Abbie is inundated with praise and thanks from viewers who have struggled with similar issues to her. For the 25-year-old, the ability to interact with those who support her is one of the perks of the jobs.
"One thing that I find really overwhelming on TikTok is the amount of love that you actually receive from people," she said. "It's an incredibly positive space, and not in an echo chamber type of way. Being able to connect with people and for people to feel comfortable to share their experiences with me is amazing.
"I have talked about my anxiety before and lately, I've tried to show people that I can go out by myself. People have come back to my videos and commented on them, telling me that I've inspired them to do that or at least something similar."
She added: "For me, it's about knowing that you have a connection with someone. Yes, you might not ever met them, but knowing that you will make even just the slightest bit difference in someone else's life is a great thing. The connections are positive and being able to cultivate an environment where people feel that they can be themselves is amazing. Ultimately, if I make a difference to just one person, and make them feel seen or feel good about themselves, then my job is complete."
Abbie is now an inspiration to thousands, and she wants to continue her work to reach as many people as she possibly can. But while the positive impact she has made in other people's lives is clear, she admits making videos on TikTok has also helped her to develop the confidence and happiness she exhibits today.
"It's not all about external validation at all, but to feel accepted by the people that choose to follow me will always be a great feeling. I hope those people know that I will always accept them and welcome them into a space that I try to make as safe as possible.
"I've learnt as I've gone on, I don't think when I first started blogging that I could have been on camera as much as I am now, at least not straight away, I'd have felt very self conscious. But as I've grown up and spent more time online, I've learned that there will always be other people who have negative opinions and I can't sugarcoat that.
"I've realised now that the only thing that matters is the way I feel about myself, and right now I'm in the best point I've ever been in my life. Hopefully I can keep improving and will be able to make more content that reaches and inspires as many people as possible."
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