Anna Geary has opened up about her experience on Dancing With The Stars, admitting that it helped her majorly to work through her insecurities.
Looking back on her time on the hit TV show back in 2018, Anna told the Irish Independent that more than anything it helped her to improve her body image.
“Going on that show really made me face up to my insecurities,” Anna began.
“Tiny outfits, and you’re on show for people to judge and criticise. I loved it but let me tell you, it was the outfits – I was like, ‘I’m wearing what?’”
Going on to speak about the response she got from the public, Anna said that she went on to become a role model to many young girls around the country.
“I got so many messages from parents of young girls who’d given up sport who saw me and were saying, ‘Look at her back muscles, look how strong she looks.’
Opening up about how she was taught to view her own body growing up, she says:
“I was lucky growing up to learn to look at my body as an instrument rather than an ornament. It wasn’t about how I looked in a pair of skinny jeans, it was how powerful I could be with a ball in my hand.
“But the reality is, when I got older and started going out and getting into tans and heels, my body looked different to my friends.
“Not a lot of girls had the same size legs as I did, and role models like Sonia O’Sullivan looked nothing like me, but I understood my body needed to look a certain way to win for my team and Cork.”