Sophie Simmons is looking more stunning than ever, and the 23-year-old says she’s “proud”; of how she looks now, which is why she’s been sharing some racier selfies.
Simmons, the daughter of famed rocker and KISS frontman Gene Simmons, has undergone a major body transformation in the past few years, and she recently opened up to ET about her new-found confidence after being body-shamed as a teenager.
“I remember definitely a few times when I went to the beach with my family and there were photos of me in a bikini and the headline was like, “Beached Whale,'”; Sophie recounted. “I was maybe 15 or 16.”;
WATCH: 9 Celebs Who Want You to Know Body-Shaming Isn’t Cool
According to Sophie, her efforts to get in shape weren’t really about changing her physical appearance, but were driven by a desire to feel healthier.
//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js“The decision was never to lose weight or never to get smaller. That’s never really been an issue for me, I’ve always been happy at whatever size I am,”; Sophie shared. “But I was feeling very lethargic and tired and grumpy and I couldn’t really figure out why, and then I got allergy tested and found out I was allergic to things that I was eating every day.”; Once she cut out the foods that were holding her back from being totally healthy, her body, “just changed shape.”; “I started getting rid of weight in weird places and holding it in the right places,”; Sophie explained. PHOTOS: Biggest Celebrity Weight Loss Transformations! Now, Sophie is proudly flaunting her figure all over Instagram, and she even posed nude for the art photography book Curves in July — although posing nude was still scary for her.
Love yourself, then go from there. @federicaphotography A photo posted by Sophie Tweed-Simmons (@sophie_tweed_simmons) on Nov 25, 2015 at 4:21pm PST
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“I was very nervous and I didn’t really feel OK with it as I was shooting it, but I knew that if it came out and I could just get through that, that I would accept myself because there’s no hiding in the book,”; Sophie said. “There’s no Photoshop in the book. None of us are made to look thinner and I just loved the idea.”;
Now that she’s strengthened her own confidence and self-image, the model and singer is using her platform to spread her body-positive message.
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“We’re not all the same size and the same age,”; Sophie shared. “My Instagram has the same photos on it that another Instagram model will have but maybe I’m five sizes bigger than her, and that’s okay because it just shows a different type of person to look up to.”;
WATCH: Meet the Curvy Models Celebrating the Beauty in Women of All Sizes
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