Clacton: I beat bullies to be a glamour girl (From Clacton and Frinton Gazette)

Clacton: I beat bullies to be a glamour girl

11:16am Friday 11th September 2009

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)

A MODEL has told how she beat school bullies, anorexia and suicidal despair to become a curvy glamour girl.

Sarah Jane Bruce, 23, from Clacton, says she suffered years of bullying at school while growing up in Lancaster.

She stopped eating properly and became anorexic.

"They used to call me matchstick legs and said I should kill myself," she said.

Sarah Jane, of Kingswell Avenue, eventually plucked up the courage to tell a school dinner lady what was happening.

Her weight fell to four and a half stone and she tried to overdose on pills but was discovered in time by her parents.

Things began to change for the pretty teenager after she won a carnival queen competition.

She vowed to try a career in modelling, encouraged by her parents.

"I'd got very skinny. I wasn't eating," she said.

"Eventually I saw what I looked like in the mirror and thought 'Oh my God!'

"I decided that when I left school I'd turn my life around."

Sarah Jane began eating properly again and started to pile on the pounds, becoming a more healthy 9st.

Her new curves and confidence soon saw her appearing in the men's mag, Nuts, and the Sport and Star newspapers.

Sarah Jane admits it might not be every girl's dream job but said: "It's a really good laugh - I love it. Everything has changed now."

She hopes her story will help other youngsters.

"If it wasn't for my parents I'd never have got through it all," she said.

"I really want to help other people who are being bullied.

"I learnt not to take everything that people say to heart and that people only bully you because they are jealous of something you've got that they haven't.

"All the kids who used to bully me at school come on Facebook and are really nice to me now!"

Sarah Jane moved to Clacton last year to be with her bricklayer fiance, Steve Mallett, 39.

The couple haven't set a date yet, but Sarah Jane said: "I've never been happier."

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)