Tasha opened up about her younger years (Picture: Getty / REX / ITV)
Love Island star Tasha Ghouri has opened up on her ‘darkest moments’ as a teenager, sharing mental health battles she faced in her childhood.
The 24-year-old made it to the finals of this year’s ITV2 reality dating series with Andrew Le Page, losing out to winners Ekin-Su Culculoglu and Davide Sanclimenti.
The star, who made history as the first ever deaf person on Love Island, has gone on to work with eBay and recently insisted that she won’t work with any fast fashion brands.
She’s been open about her ‘superpower’ through her time in the villa and afterwards, with Andrew recently getting a tattoo dedicated to her.
The dancer and model appeared on Amanda Wakeley‘s podcast StyleDNA, where she shared: ‘I’ll be honest I wasn’t always confident. Growing up wasn’t easy for me, mentally.
‘I was in my darkest moments when I was a teenager and as a child. It was hard for me growing up.
Tasha opened up on finding her confidence (Picture: Jonathan Hordle/REX/Shutterstock)
Tasha and Andrew made it to the finals of Love Island this year (Picture: David Fisher/Shutterstock)
‘A lot of people think I was always confident because of the way I am now but was something I really worked on throughout the years. Confidence works on working on yourself – finding your self-love.’
She continued: ‘It has to come from you, it really does, I think there was a time where it switched for me, and that’s when I started being like, actually, I need to stop hiding it.
Tasha has been open about her ‘superpower’ (Picture: andrewlepage/thelondonsocial/mrwolf.co.uk/Instagram)
‘It is who I am, it’s a part of me, defining me, it’s something that’s special and different.
‘That’s when I started to be confident and that’s me just like growing and growing.
‘But don’t get me wrong, I still have days when I’m not confident and you know, we’re all human, we’re all going to have those days.’
Andrew got a tattoo dedicated to Tasha (Picture: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images/Max Cisotti)
Andrew surprised Tasha with a tattoo (Picture: @ghourinatasha/Twitter)
Tasha admitted she found her confidence later in life, and didn’t feel pressure to look a certain way during her time on Love Island.
She said: ‘I’ll be real, I was eating takeaways for months before. I was like, look, I’m happy with my body, and I didn’t feel the need to go to the gym and workout and go in being in better shape or whatever. I felt comfortable enough. I felt happy.’
She elsewhere added: ‘I wouldn’t say I felt a massive amount of pressure [to look good all the time],’ saying: ‘I was actually the girl that was always napping when the girls were getting ready. I’d get ready in about 15 minutes – my hair and make up and everything.’
Tasha made history as Love Island’s first ever deaf contestant (Picture: Matt Frost/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
In a recent interview with Metro.co.uk, Tasha ruled out working with fast fashion brands.
She explained: ‘I think for me, I’m focusing on pre-loved and small businesses, there’s some amazing small businesses out there that I love wearing.
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‘So, for me, I won’t be going down the fast fashion route. I’ll be focusing on pre-loved, and small businesses. To me, it’s not about money and all these other things, It’s about what makes sense to me, about what can be amazing and what feels organic to me.’
Love Island is available to watch on ITV Hub.
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Tasha made history as Love Island’s first ever deaf contestant.
