Actress and entrepreneur Tammin Sursok has penned a powerful letter to her 13-year-old self, which shines a light on the struggles of overweight teenagers.
"It's me, your future self. I'm standing on the sideline looking back at your ripe, fleshy, hopeful face and I know what's about to happen.
"The boy standing in front of you will break you. He will break your heart in ways you never thought possible," she wrote in the piece published on news.com.au.
Sursok then recalls the moment the boy in question embarrassed her in front of her peers.
"Not only does he not have any giddy interest in you, but he will verbalise in front of everyone that you are indeed 'FAT' and after he miniaturises you, he will parade away," she writes.
Remembering how she felt in the moment, she adds: "you will feel like the lights just blasted and you are standing on a stage, naked, in all your quarter pounder glory."
The 33-year-old also writes about her memories of a swimming carnival and how self-conscious she felt in her swimsuit.
"You dive. Well, you try. You try to dive. Your body can't propel you high enough so you falter, you slip and you fall. Hitting the water so hard that you feel like your body has been stung by a team of the Hamilton Island jelly fish," she writes.
"As you come up for disorientated air, all you hear is the muffled chuckles and with all eyes on you. You have become the punch line, once again."
The letter also touches on how cruel teenage girls can be to each other.
"I see that girl. She will spend your school years antagonising you, she will make it her duty to beat you down, trying to suck from a straw any self respect you might have," Sursok writes.
"Distracting herself with you will deflect the self loathing she feels, but you won't know that just yet.
"Not only will she steal your first real love but she will celebrate it, mocking you mercilessly until the only thing that can rock you to sleep is the monotonous sound of your own cries."
But the letter takes a turn as Sursok reassures her 13-year-old self that things are going to change.
"After enough friction and discord and abrasion, a fire will spark in you. A fire that will burn uncontrollably," she says.
"You will hear a voice, buried in other people's opinions and words bathed in hate, that will rise like a Phoenix. You will name your first child this, to remind her that out of adversity she will forever reign."
Sursok tells her younger self that things wont change over night, and that she will still feel stuck, but that she is going to be "more than OK".
Earlier in the week Sursok posted a collage of photos of herself as a child on Instagram. Although the photos show a smiling girl, she says that it was a painful time in her life.
"I remember the lack of self love and the lack of compassion I had for myself," she writes in the caption.
The former Home and Away star goes on to say that at this time of year when people are sharing their "highlight reels" it is easy to struggle.
"I know there are many people out there who are struggling, who don't feel like they are enough, who have no hope. I PROMISE you, you can change your life," she writes.
She continues: "You can get out of a painful situation. It takes one positive step in the right direction. Just one step. This is not about weight, it's about positive change from whatever negative situation you find yourself in.
"This is coming from me, this was my story, a little girl close to 200 pounds, who woke up one day and decided enough was enough. I love you all and I truly believe in every one of you."
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