Meet Leah Henry

We were lucky to catch up with Leah Henry recently and have shared our conversation below.

Leah , we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
This has been an incredibly long journey to loving myself. Honestly, sleeping naked changed my life! I know, you’re thinking “what does she mean by that?” It’s exactly what I said. Sleeping nude and several episodes of the Tyra Bank’s show made me grow to love myself, my body, and who I’ve become. I have always struggled with excepting my weight and I don’t feel like I was necessarily in an environment that fostered self love as a plus size child. Growing up, I was always bigger than most of my counterparts and very early on I developed a sense of humor to mask and jump in front of jokes that came my way about my weight. Quite literally, I believe that I am the personality I am because of some of the trauma I experienced trying to avoid being the butt of the joke. When I started to get into my puberty years I started to truly not feel confident or pretty like the other girls around me. My friends begin to date, to have boyfriends, they begin to start going out socially with boys, and didn’t have that experience. I was a tomboy and I loved playing soccer and volleyball. I never liked dressing up, I always had corn rolls and likely was wearing a T-shirt and shorts. Around that time a lot of my friends had started wearing bras and it was definitely a hot topic. I remember everyone saying that they would take their bras off to go to sleep and I remember not being comfortable enough to do so. So one night I decided, “let me see what everybody’s talking about let me just take my bra off to go to bed.” The first night was not comfortable… As I continue to sleep without a bra, the more comfortable I became with the idea of my nakedness and ultimately my body. As years went by I slowly started to strip away items as I went to sleep at night. In a weird way it was almost liberating the more articles of clothing that I took off while I was going to bed. It was as if the more clothing I took off at night the more I was comfortable with seeing my body which was some thing that I struggled with for a very long time. It took me years to look in the mirror and to honor and love my body for simply what it was. As time went on nudity was equivalent to my expression of openness with myself and my body, that I never really had. While this self discovery was going on in my bed, I was religiously watching the Tyra Banks show where she was trying to redefine beauty standards. At the time Tyra Banks herself was trying to rationalize her weight gain and what that meant to the public eye. So all that to say, that was the beginning of my evolution of self love, self esteem, and confidence. Around my junior year in high school I haven’t really started to fall in love with my body and who I was and what I looked like. I got to a point internally where I realize that if I was going to stay a plus size person I had to embrace and love who I was on an internal level. It took a lot of self work, a lot of turning off the outside noise and peoples opinions off, and more importantly embracing who God created me to be. No matter what the scale said I had to find validation in my own human experience and what lied within who I was as a person. So ultimately, it’s been a life journey to grow into becoming the woman that I am now. I’ve learned to except the good and the bad that comes with being plus size. I’m learning to advocate for others so that they can be just as comfortable as me and their own skin. This is a walk that I balance daily. Some days I feel beautiful and other days I wish something fit like it did 20 pounds ago. Either way, I live knowing that I’m a truly beautiful person inside and out. Being a plus size person in society is not easy. And while some people might say just go lose weight there’s more baggage to carry than the physical pounds. My ultimate goal is to hope that there are young girls who are growing up “the fat friend,” and realize that there’s more to you than just being that. I hope my story about sleeping naked helps you realize that there’s truly freedom in loving yourself wholeheartedly.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I’m an on air personality and host in Columbus, Ohio. You may know my viral brand “Leah’s Lemonade.” where I’ve interviewed hundreds of celebrities. You can catch me on the airways of Power 107.5/106.3. I recently created a luxury body positive travel group, Plus Paradise. We’re taking our inaugural trip to Montego Bay, Jamaica. In this season of my life it’s important for me to create spaces, I haven’t been able to find for myself. As someone who’s traveled around the world, I didn’t feel like there was space for me as a plus size black woman…Literally and figuratively. I’m excited to expand my brand to create safe and positive spaces for plus size people. We deserve an affirming space, love, luxury and FUN!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Hustle: The hustle and the dream are sold separately. No one will go as hard for you as yourself. Put yourself in positions to win and don’t wait on anybody to get what’s yours!

Thirst for knowledge: I think because we have the Internet at our fingertips we believe that we can have the knowledge to everything. The reality is, is that there is some thing about going out and finding out information yourself. My thirst for knowledge has always set me apart from people around me. Don’t be scared to really find out the truth! I’m a real journalist, what can i say!

Relationships: We say your network is your net worth and it really means that. Finding mentors who can show you the way is soooo important! Having people who know you and put your name in rooms your not in is how you move up! Find your people and have their back the way you want them to have yours!

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
Absolutely, I’m looking for people to become apart of my Plus Paradise community. If you are plus sized, in between, or just support body positivity we’d love to have you join us in Montego Bay! Plus Paradise Getaways is having our inaugural trip/retreat and we’re looking for people to enjoy this luxury experience. We’re headed to Montego Bay, Jamaica Decemeber 5-9th. We’re also looking for brand partnerships and sponsors. If you believe your brand can to help serve a community that often times gets over looked and under appreciated, we would love to work with you. As we say at Plus Paradise…This trip is for everybody and every BODY! More details on our site PlusParadiseGetaway.com!

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