Exclusive
UNDIE-LIEVABLE
I weigh 27 stone at 42 & refuse to stop posing in my undies – my man’s slim & thinks I’m sexy, I won’t hide away
WEARING a crop top and nude coloured leggings, Sonya McKee dances around her kitchen, flashing her bare stomach to her 32,000 TikTok followers.
The mum-of-two, who lives in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, loves showing off her body - despite weighing 27 stone.
6
6
Sonya, who's mum to Tanisha, 21, and Akai, seven, says she's been bullied for her size since school - and refuses to hide away anymore.
The 42-year-old tells Fabulous: "I’ve been bullied my whole life because of how I look.
"I was recently banned from TikTok for five days just because I wore a crop top.
"They class it as 'nudity' because it's a bigger person showing some skin, whereas slimmer girls can wear less and get away with it. I have a big bum and boobs, some clothes just don't cover as much.
Read more real lives
"It's hard for bigger ladies to keep going out there and fighting, just to prove we're normal like anybody else, and our size shouldn't matter.
"But the negativity has pushed me to put myself out there more. I've used the hate become stronger and turned it into something positive.
"If it wasn’t for all the hate I’ve had, I wouldn’t be the person I am now."
Sonya, who joined TikTok in March 2020, is a body positivity blogger who posts under the name Queen Sassy - and gets up to 1.5 million hits on individual videos.
Most read in Fabulous
She says: "I get a lot of positive comments but I'm constantly getting hate too.
"It's all the stereotypical fat-shaming stuff, ‘go get on a treadmill’, ‘you’re going to have a heart attack’, 'get off your bum', 'go do some exercise', ‘you’re eating all the food in the fridge’.
"It doesn’t bother me. I’ve heard it all so many times. When people send me hate, I just wear even less.
"Years ago, I wasn't comfortable in my own skin but now I am, I'll go out partying in crop tops, I'm not just doing it for TikTok.
"Because of social media, my confidence has grown and I will wear dresses which are short or have slits in them.
I’ve been bullied my whole life because of how I look. I don't worry about what people think, a lot of the hate comes from people's own insecurities
Sonya McKee
"I don't worry about what people think, at the end of the day I'm happy and that's all that matters. A lot of the hate comes from people's own insecurities.
"The other day, someone said I looked like a boulder, like a big rock, but I just laughed because a lot of the trolls are kids.
"To the young girls, I say ‘come back to me when you’re a woman, when you’ve had kids and your body’s fully grown, because you’re not going to look perfect like that all your life, you’ll change as you get older’.
"I can’t say I’ve ever hated myself. Growing up, it was hard because I felt like I couldn't go out to the pub or I'd be bullied. One girl would come up and slap me round the face, just for the sake of it.
"I used to skip school sometimes because I didn't want to do PE, but I never got down about it because I didn't see the point. I just got on with my life."
I know I need to lose weight, but I don’t hate my body. Just because I'm big, I shouldn't have to shut myself away, wear baggy clothes and hide out of society. If people didn’t want us to wear crop tops, they shouldn’t make them in our sizes
Sonya McKee
Sonya's trolls have claimed she is "promoting obesity", but she vehemently denies this.
She says: "I know I need to lose weight, I am trying to but I don’t hate my body. I used to but I’ve learned to accept what I have.
"Just because I'm big, I shouldn't have to shut myself away, wear baggy clothes and hide out of society.
"If people didn’t want us to wear crop tops, they shouldn’t make them in our sizes."
6
6
Sonya is currently unemployed, after moving from her home of 19 years in the Republic of Ireland to live with boyfriend of eight months Craig Rodrick.
The 38-year-old, who works for the NHS, is a fellow TikToker.
Sonya says: "I've known him for a while. We were friends and it went from talking to flirting.
"Then I jetted over to meet him in July and spent two weeks with him. Seven weeks later, I moved over with my kids.
"Craig absolutely loves my body. He always tells me I’m beautiful, sexy and gorgeous. He likes women who are curvy and I can't wait to marry him.
"Craig supports what I do because he knows it's about supporting other girls and helping them with confidence.
"He knows I get guys who comment stuff like ‘I love you’ and ‘I want to be your Sugar Daddy’ but none of that bothers him.
"Some guys will say ‘get your stomach out more’ but that's not my style.
"Most of my followers are other women who like me wearing dresses, they follow me because I'm a bigger person who's showing fashion at the same time.
"I know Craig is slimmer than me but I've never had any reaction to that. Everyone just says how cute we are, they just seem to love us as the TikTok couple. We’ve never had any negatives about us together."
Craig absolutely loves my body. He always tells me I’m beautiful, sexy and gorgeous. He likes women who are curvy
Sonya McKee
Sonya also posts videos dancing with her daughter, which again has a mixed reaction.
She says: "Some trolls say ‘your daughter must be embarrassed by you' and a lot of people are shocked that I have a daughter in her 20s.
"At first, Tanisha was worried about the hate comments directed at me.
"She’s happy with what I post, she just doesn’t want me getting hurt by the hate. But she knows I'm strong and can deal with it."
6
6
As for Sonya, she refuses to let the haters silence her.
She says: "Society is so judgemental and says ‘you have to be slim to fit into this world’.
"People judge and assume because you’re big, you’re eating all the time.
"I think it’s horrible we get shamed just because of what we look like.
"Tess Holliday is one of my biggest inspirations. Women like me should be able to be on the front page of magazines, there should be mannequins that are bigger so we can see what clothes look like.
"What you look like shouldn't matter, we are all unique and perfect in our own way, everyone's beautiful inside and out.
"I get a lot of great, positive comments. One girl posted a video the other day and said ‘this is down to Queen Sassy, if it wasn’t for her inspiration and confidence, I wouldn’t have been able to do it’.
"Others come to me, saying ‘don’t ever change, you’re an inspiration, you’ve helped me so much with my confidence’.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
Read More on The Sun
"That gives me an extra boost because you know you’ve helped somebody, it helps to balance out the negatives."
- You can follow Sonya .
Topics