Garigarra Riley-Mundine: My name is Garigarra Riley-Mundine. I'm Wiradjuri, Bundjalung, Kamilaroi, and Yuin woman from Dubbo, New South Wales. So my life growing up, I originally grew up on country, which I was very blessed to have a strong connection to my culture and my community. And then I moved to Sydney for high school, which was a big transition moving away from my family and community. Garigarra Riley-Mundine: I think for me, when I moved to Sydney, I think back home I was so much surrounded by family and culture that I never really noticed that my body was different until I moved to Sydney, and I suddenly became part of this very multicultural community. And a lot of my friends were of Asian heritage and Irish and Italian, and teenage girls, they had naturally skinny bodies that fit European beauty standards. And I noticed that my body wasn't like that, and I really struggled because I just wanted to fit in. Garigarra Riley-Mundine: I was incredibly self-conscious and I was always trying to find ways to lose weight and to fit into those smaller sizes. And the fashion at the time was all about crop tops and looking small and cute, and I just wasn't that girl. So it really impacted me. I became really self-conscious of myself. I would specifically buy clothes that were too small and I would try and force myself to lose weight, either by not eating or taking things that would help me flush out the foods just to try and get myself as small as possible and to fit these beauty standards. Garigarra Riley-Mundine: It was occasionally brought up to me about the fact that I was losing weight, but most of the time it was just like, "Wow, you look amazing. You're so thin. You look great." It was never you really need to eat something and look after yourself. Health was kind of less of a priority than looking good. Garigarra Riley-Mundine: I think what really helped me was, well getting out of Sydney. I moved to Canberra for my university studies and I think starting fresh really helped me and I moved in on my own, and so I really went on this journey of trying to find things that were healthy for me. To get support, I would often go and visit my sister, who's eight years older than me. She lived in Wollongong and I would just go there to clear my head. I would also go and talk to ... I had a couple of friends that were dealing with similar issues and I felt like I could actually talk to them about it. Garigarra Riley-Mundine: So I've tried to exercise more and learning how to eat healthy, and I think that really helped me on my journey. So I think in talking to my friends at university and the friends that I've made since university, because they all come from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds, we all kind of understood that we didn't fit into this European beauty standards and that even Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people we within ourselves have very different body types, and from that, I really began to accept myself. Garigarra Riley-Mundine: I stopped dying my hair blonde and straightening it every day. I really started to embrace my curves and finding outfits that suited my body type, and just learning to really accept me for who I am. I think I've learned from my experience that it's a journey and that it's not going to happen overnight and it's going to be an ongoing thing that you just need to work at every single day, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. It does get easier, and it's all about embracing yourself. Learning that you're not going to fit into this perfect box and you're not meant to. You've just got to be you. Garigarra Riley-Mundine: My messages to other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that are going through similar feelings and situations is to really find support in each other and to talk about it. Don't push it under the rug. We all are facing these issues and there's a reason behind it. We're not meant to fit into the beauty standards that society pushes onto us, and we need to really embrace each other.