November is a very special month for Plus For Us, its our 1 year anniversary and we are honored to feature international super model Cléo Fernandes of Brazil as our Model Icon. Her story is very inspirational and just goes to show that sometimes we have a calling in life, to aspire to bigger and better things. She was kind enough to share her story as well as some amazing pictures from her fabulous portfolio! Congratulation Cléo from all of us at Plusforus.com!
Hello, my name is Cléo Fernandes, Im 24 years old and I am Brazilian, from the city of Goiânia –Goiás. I am graduating on the course of Physical Education at the Goiás State University. My parents are both Brazilians with Portuguese and Spanish Ancestry. I am Christian and I do have my life guided by God, I believe and trust Him always.
My career as Plus Size Model started just over one year ago, after seeing some work from national and international models. I looked up a course for modeling within my city and while I was only in the second week of the course I was having my first photo shooting done. I totally loved it after seeing my first pictures being published in a clothing catalog. It was the beginning of a very positive transformation for me. I was not a fat child; I started to gain weight while I was a teenager. From being a very anxious person, I ended up always taking it out on the food. It was not easy, everyone was telling me to take care of my body, not to gain a lot of weight, and unfortunately I took the opposite path and developed an eating disorder. For many years I suffered the neurosis of the necessity of being skinny, but I just could not lose weight and I was not happy with the body that I had. Just before I became a model, I realized that I had to change my mentality and be happy, that I had to accept myself and love myself. When I saw the first pictures of Plus Size Model, Flúvia Lacerda, I was amazed by it! A plus-size woman, gorgeous and sexy, and that was successful. Meanwhile, I began accepting who I was and found the courage to try to be a Plus Size Model as well. After my first modeling job, I was sure that I wanted to dedicate to this profession everything I had. My point of view in relation to my body began to change; I was leaving behind that desire of having a skinny body, and began to have my own opinion in relation to beauty, putting aside the social standards. Since then, I have been blessed. I started to work in my city, and now I have a few of them done throughout the cities of Brazil. I participated in the Plus Size Fashion Week, which is the biggest full figured fashion event in Brazil, I was photographed for major brands, including one that Flúvia Lacerda is the main model for and being in a project where she is the star, is a reason for me to be very proud of myself.
I have the support of my entire family, my fiancé and friends, and this is highly important to me, knowing that I have people that love me and cheer for my success.
All the work I do is with deep love and dedication, each one is an achievement in my life. Today I love my body and care about it. I pay attention on my eating habits to be balanced and healthy, I exercise whenever is possible, I care about my skin, hair, nails and I just love doing all these. I am happy with all the return I have gotten from people that admire my work and I want to do it for a long time. I have a great desire to spend a season working outside of Brazil, constructing an international career and always strive to give the best representation of a Plus Size woman!
“I thank you for the invite of being the ‘Model of the Month, It is a great honor esspecially being the one year anniversary month of Plusforus.com. I wish much success to the website and all those that are part of it. May you enjoy many years to come with success! Thank you!! Cléo Fernandes”
If you would like to see more amazing work from Cléo please visit: Cleofernandes.blogspot.com
I love!!!
XD
Cléo Fernandes