Scars a badge of honour
Model who recovered from serious accident motivates others to be ‘body positive’
A DURBAN woman has turned the destruction of her big modelling dreams into body-positive activism, owning her scars and showing them off instead of covering them up.
Nelisiwe Zuma, 26, a car crash survivor, spoke this week at the Symphonia Women in Leadership breakfast in Mount Edgecombe.
She encourages women to happily embrace their body imperfections by proudly sharing her scars in professional photos, which has led to other women sharing their images on her social-media platforms.
As a motivational speaker, Zuma aims to spread the concept of body positivity with her scars from a tragic car accident that almost cost her life in 2016.
“I am doing this for people who also went through what I have been through, and who know what I am dealing with. I want us to talk about it openly and come together to help each other,” she said.
Zuma was involved in a car crash on the night of August 13, 2016, when she and two friends were celebrating the “big break” of her career.
That day, she had been offered a job at Zipfworks, an applications developer, in Santa Monica, California, in the US.
“I felt like it was going to be the start of greater achievements for me. I was excited, and I already imagined myself working in the company,” she said.
Her friend, who was driving, died after the crash.
Zuma suffered severe injuries, and her organs started failing.
For a time after life-saving surgery, she had to use a colostomy bag, a small, waterproof pouch that collects body waste and may be temporary or permanent.
“A colostomy bag is uncomfortable, and if you are not educated enough about it, it is more difficult. I felt so dirty when I had it for months after I left hospital. Sometimes, it dripped in public. It is not normal to walk around with human waste on you. It breaks my heart to hear about a young person who ends their life because she or he had a colostomy bag, and they could not live with having the bag on them for the rest of their lives,” said Zuma.
Zuma spent a few months in hospital recovering from her operations and goes for regular check-ups.
Despite initially having difficulty in accepting her scars, Zuma eventually learned to love her body the way it is.
She continues to do some modelling and does motivational speaking, especially touching on having a positive body image.
“Despite everything, I still stand in front of the camera and I will continue to show my scars because they are part of me and they tell my story,” she said.
On her Instagram page, Zuma is flooded with pictures of young people from around the world who share their scars.
“It is encouraging to see women and men sharing their pictures of scars with me on social media because that shows they are not alone and we can support one another,” Zuma said.
“These young people say there is no need to hide any more and they have accepted who they are now with their scars. I am happy to be reaching out to these young individuals because I didn’t get such support. At some point, I wanted to end my life, but I had to deal with it on my own. I use my story to reach out to others.”
Part of her motivational talks includes urging young people to not drink and drive because that was a contributing factor to the crash.
“Celebrating with alcohol was a youthful way of expressing our joy. However, we should have been more strategic about it and opted for a safer way to get around. We didn’t think of this because at that stage, and with our levels of intoxication, we were only thinking of ourselves. Our safety was the last thing on our minds. All we were thinking about was booze, fun and celebration,” she said.
Zuma said she wished they could have done things differently.
“We could have taken a taxi, or called someone sober to pick us up, but we didn’t, and that was fair and square foolishness,” she added.
She hopes young people will learn from her experiences.
“I am still healing myself, physically and psychologically, but I would rather share my progress with others so we can heal together. To people who have days where they wonder if there’s any point to their existence, hate their bodies and have self-doubts, they can follow me on Instagram at madame_blog and Twitter at madame_blogger,” she said.