Heidi Salt
20, Newcastle-Under-Lyme
“Celebrating unique smiles is important; not everyone will look the same and that’s fine. It’s about who you are, and no smile should ever define that.”
Heidi never got bullied in school and never took stray stares or whispers on the street to heart. “It’s just something that happens when you look different,” she says.
But social media was a whole different beast. The abuse began the moment she signed up three years ago and it has continued every day since.
Rebuilding her confidence wasn’t easy. She did it by “looking in the mirror every day and telling myself that I am pretty and I am beautiful no matter what I look like or the size of my body. Once you start telling yourself you are something every day, then you become that. It took years for me to actually love myself and love who I was, but now I do. I love my smile. It makes me who I am and I’m proud of that.”