GAINS, NOT SHAME

From being fat-shamed by personal trainers to receiving unsolicited advice from strangers, Asian models, activists and influencers share what they have to endure on their journeys to become stronger and healthier

- Salomé Grouard

Lezlie Chan wears many hats as a singer, LGBTQ+ activist and plus-sized model. But it’s not been an easy journey for her. Growing up as a queer, plus-sized child in Hong Kong came with many challenges—one of which was trying to lose weight in a non-judgemental space. As it turned out, the local gym she joined wasn’t the safe place she was hoping for.

Let’s backtrack a little. After being bullied in secondary school for her size, Chan started working out and—along with a strict diet— managed to lose nearly 45kg. Yet in doing so, she had to deal with the toxic environment at her gym.

“The gym monetised my insecurities. I was told by personal trainers that I would never find a boyfriend if I didn’t lose a certain amount of weight, that I could not become pretty if I didn’t buy more sessions”, Chan tells Tatler.

Unfortunately, those experiences were not isolated, and even persisted, which made her feel increasingly unwelcome at the gym. “One day, I was working out in a sports bra, with my T-shirt tied high around the waist, which left a part of my stomach exposed. A personal trainer came up to me and asked me to untie my shirt and hide my stomach,” she says. “It really affected me, because most of the women around me were just working out in shorts and sport bras. It was clear that my body was the problem.”

After this incident, she realised that her experience at the gym—a place dedicated to well-being—was taking a toll on her mental health and amplified her insecurities about her body image. Consequently, she decided to quit the gym.