Meet Jennifer Salvati

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jennifer Salvati. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jennifer , 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?

I am a firm believer that we all have confidence within us, we just need to know how to foster it so that it grows and develops into something powerful that we can use for the greater good. It took me a while to learn this, as I wasn’t always this confident.

Growing up, I had a medical condition called Precocious Puberty. I spent ages 6 through 11 on hormones and it was during this time that I began to gain weight. My pediatrician put me on a diet and even gave my mom a doctors note to take to her gym so I could go with her before I was technically at the appropriate age to be working out at an adult style gym.

I was always told how beautiful I would be if I lost weight. It was never “You are beautiful” and always “You have such a pretty face.”

I was bullied throughout high school and started to believe everything people said about me. I began to believe I was too fat to be pretty, too fat to deserve to be treated well in relationships. Too fat to deserve to experience the world like everyone else.

It wasn’t until I was teaching middle school and I began to witness kids bullying each other for their appearance that it truly hit me. If I was telling kids that bullying and treating others poorly was unacceptable, why was I allowing myself to be bullied by the world? I had to set an example. Over the years I slowly began to appreciate things about myself that are not related to appearance, like my sense of humor, strong social skills, empathy, and creativity. I established a support system who uplifts rather than brings me down.

When my mother was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in 2020 and had to have a mastectomy, I worked with her to learn self love and that beauty is much deeper than our physical appearance.

In 2022, I left my job as a middle school teacher to pursue a new career, and this enabled me to have the time to foster my hobby as a plus size fashion content and confidence building creator. I spend every weekend, and many nights, creating content to help other plus size people feel beautiful and while I do primarily focus on plus size fashion, some of my favorite content to create are my plus size pep talks to help people feel better about themselves. I get countless messages in my inbox from women telling me how much my content has helped them feel beautiful. What many people may not realize is as much as creating content may help others, it is helping me love myself more one day at a time right along with them.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

Monday through Friday I am the Senior Partner of Learning and Development with Spencer’s and Spirit of Halloween ( not sure if you want to reveal this) but on the weekends I focus on Jennifer Samantha Style, my plus size fashion and confidence boosting content creation side business.

I seek out fashion for plus size people who want to feel good about themselves but struggle to find clothes that fit their body and the occasion. My dream would be to eventually create my own line for a company that would cater to all bodies and style preferences. I truly believe fashion is art and a form of self expression. I don’t think we need to always stick to whats “in” or trendy. As long as you put it on and feel confident and beautiful, that is what matters the most.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

When it comes to being able to create content, you need to have passion, perseverance, and patience. I absolutely LOVE creating plus size fashion and confidence boosting videos. If I did not love it, it would not feel like a hobby to me, but I began posting in 2021 when I had only family and friends following me. Now I have over 55k followers on IG and Tiktok and while that may seem small in comparison to other creators, I know this is still just the beginning. Even when my views are down and I am not seeing much growth, I don’t consider giving up or taking a break. I sit down and try to figure out how to make even more engaging content for my followers.

I also strongly suggest networking. I have a few content creator friends now who have significantly larger followings than I do and I often go to them for advice. Do your research and always be open to learn.

Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?

I get overwhelmed OFTEN having a full time job, creating content, and trying to be a good wife, daughter, and friend, One piece of advice to stay organized is keep a spreadsheet or to-do lists for the day, week, and month to help prioritize tasks and better see what HAS to be done and what can wait. It is easy to feel like we have so much to do, but when you put pen to paper and determine which things are high priority, its often a smaller, more manageable list.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennifer_samantha_style/
• Other: Tiktok

  https://www.tiktok.com/@jennifer_samantha_style

Image Credits

I take all my own images currently – the only one I did not take was at the Torrid Casting call but I was sent the image with rights