Love Island’s Shaughna Phillips laments focus on her looks after TV appearance
LOVE Island star Shaughna Phillips has said that upon appearing on the programme “overnight, no-one cared about what I wanted to say”.
The influencer, 28, featured on series six of the winter version of the hit ITV2 show which saw the contestants spend up to six weeks in a South African villa.
Phillips became a fan favourite after being dumped by fellow islander Callum Jones, 25, when he decided to form a couple with Molly Smith in the rival villa, Casa Amor.
During the re-coupling scene that followed, Phillips uttered the two words – “congrats, hun” – that caused her to become an internet sensation, with the phrase instantly trending on Twitter.
However, for Phillips the hardest part of becoming a reality TV star was being regularly
asked questions about her appearance.
Originally working as a democratic services officer for Lambeth Council in south London, Phillips said she had always “focused on being the smartest person in the room”.
“When I walked into an office or meeting,
no-one cared about what I looked like because it was about what you were about to say,” she told the PA news agency.
“I always tried to be the smartest person in the room and suddenly overnight, no-one cared about what I wanted to say – no-one cared about my opinion.
“It was about what I was wearing, or if I have my make-up done today or have I had a new filler put in.
“I don’t like it. And that’s one of the reasons I do what I do now, because it absolutely doesn’t matter what you look like.”
Phillips has been vocal about her journey to body confidence – culminating in the launch of her sport, fitness and nutrition app, Be You With Shaughna.
She has also publicly documented her battle with the condition lipoedema, an abnormal build-up of fat in the legs or arms, and her surgery to remove the fat in September 2020.
“I always say that my body is the least important part of me,” she said.
“That’s not me saying ‘I hate my body’.
“It just means that there’s so much more to me than what I look like.”