Carly Cundiff, 19, may be a recent graduate of Wadsworth High School (2014), but her wisdom is beyond her years. Before I get into what particularly made us reach out to Carly, I want to give a little background.
Carly was editor in chief for the WHS newspaper, The Bruin, and two-year captain of the Color Guard. She’s now a freshman at John Carroll University, where she participates in the JCU newspaper, The Carroll News, as well as The Arrupe Scholars Program, which is a community service organization. Carly plans to major in Education with the ultimate goal of teaching at WHS.
A “curvy” girl is how Carly describes herself who never “fit” the model stereotype. Seventeen magazine recently published an article Carly wrote describing how one person’s hurtful words impacted her self worth during her first semester at JCU. Her friends were running up the stairs to their dorm room when a group of guys in a community room along the way said, “There goes Jake and his group of girls…Oh wait, the fat one on the end doesn’t count.”
Carly was the girl on the end.
“With those eight words, he told me that that I was less than a woman because I was not his ideal body type. He took away the very base of what I am, because I was not desirable to him,” Carly wrote in the article, which can be read in its entirety here: http://bit.ly/1QAcBEg.
It took Carly a long time to get over hearing those words, but counseling and family support pulled her through.
“I had to realize that I am so much more than what some random guy thinks of me. Being curvy does not make me any less kind, any less creative, or any less funny. It does not mean that I am lazy, it does not mean I am a slob, it does not mean that I am not desirable. It does not make me any less of a woman or a human being for that matter. I am a curvy girl, but that does not mean that I am less.”
Carly wanted to share her story because “I know that so many girls are going through similar things that I have.” Carly wants girls like her to know it’s OK to look the way you do and it’s ok to sometimes feel ashamed. “But your real worth does not amount to the size of your waistline.”
Her article on Seventeen’s website has been shared more than 4,700 times!
Carly, thank you for inspiring me and others with your wisdom! -Tina
