It's funny because looking back at my first contest, I was 15 and surfing the Haleiwa contest wearing this tiny bikini. I remember not even thinking twice about wearing it - I just thought it was normal.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
For me to even be talking about bikini confidence is crazy. If you had asked me a couple of months ago, I probably would have been like, 'what are you talking about...' so it's actually huge for me to even feel okay with putting a bikini on.
Listen: I like my bikinis very small, and I also like, uh, nude-colored bikinis because people double-take - they think I'm naked on the beach.
I've always been kind of uncomfortable just on the beach in a swimsuit. I'm never my most confident in a bikini on the beach, especially when you know people are looking at you, and they expect one thing because of what they see in the magazines, and you might not look that way. It's always been a scary thing for me.
I started thinking: 'Okay, what's wrong with wearing a bikini? I look better than I looked in quite a few years, so why not? What am I afraid of?
I wear clothes that most people in the Midwest would probably deem inappropriate at my age. And I rock a bikini all summer long. I know that it's not normal, but I just don't care. I live once.
I don't prepare for wearing a bikini; I always have a bit of a tummy.
I thought, If I'm so afraid of a bikini, there's something wrong. And so I had to get back into one!
It's really intimidating to go on the beach in a bikini.
I never looked good in a bikini. My legs were too thin.
I think my first bikini, I was four and it was polka dotted and I had a big belly and I looked dashing.