Jessamyn Stanley, the self-described “fat femme” encourages people of all types to do yoga and has amassed a huge social media following leading her to release a book entitled Every Body Yoga.

Stanley is challenging a lot of notions, especially those about women who don’t fit the skinny desired stereotype and she is proving that a woman can own her body, be fit and not adhere to stereotypes. In fact, personally she challenges some of my own bias and makes me rethink some of the opinions I have given in my article on Why Are Black Women So Fat. I find her confidence, her clear fitness and her strong words inspirational.

Stanley spoke with the Grio and here are some of her choice words:

TG: How do you continue to stay positive despite the negative comments that you receive?

JS: I think it’s very helpful that I was subject to bullying at a very young age. Because I feel like I learned back then that people only say mean things about you if they say mean things about themselves.

I see so much sh*t on the internet that I don’t like, but you don’t see me in the comment section like saying everything about it, because I don’t have time. I don’t care. I’m over here living my life. I’m not sad.

There’s no way I can be an effective partner, sister, friend, daughter if I was reading all these comments and responding to all the comments. For me it’s like, if someone thinks that they’re really going to affect me in this way, then they’re in a warped version of reality. So I don’t get upset with sh*t like that. You’re not going to be everybody’s cup of tea, and you can’t look for your love in the feedback of complete strangers.

You can read the full interview on The Grio here.

Her book is available from Amazon here.