Enough With The Shame
When she was 10, Shelmith Mukami wanted to be a flight attendant, wear fancy suits, and travel all around the world. When she said this out loud, she was told that she couldn’t. Maybe if she lost a few kilograms. She gave this dream up.
“It was tough being a bigger child. I remember being made fun of in primary school, being the butt of those mchongoano jokes,” the now 23-year-old Shelmith recalls.
This taunting, bullying, and the resulting self-doubt went on through high school. Then she joined the university to study journalism.
“In uni, I was tired of hiding and trying to fit in. I woke up one morning and decided to be myself. I realized that no one was going to do this for me,” she says.