She wants to hold her head high (Picture: David Fisher/REX)
Former Love Island star Liberty Poole has shared how it felt to be ‘verbally abused’ after sharing a photo of herself without make-up.
The 2021 Dancing On Ice contestant was branded a ‘catfish’ by social media trolls after going bare faced on Instagram recently, as she was travelling so decided to forgo fake tan, eyelashes, and foundation.
However, the innocent post led to her being heckled be lads in the street, who accused her of ‘going downhill’ since her days on the ITV2 dating show.
Speaking to Metro.co.uk at the KISS FM Haunted House party, the 23-year-old explained how she was reduced to tears following the comments.
However, she’s determined to hold her head high, after previously saying she wasn’t ‘ashamed’ of how she looks.
‘I’m a normal human with feelings and I think it’s important to show that, while words may hurt, you can always turn a negative into a positive,’ she said.
She shared a make-up free video before her travels (Picture: Instagram)
Liberty admits she cried and felt hurt after being called a ‘catfish’ (Picture: PA)
‘With me, I’ve been through quite a few bad stuff, and I was sat there getting negative comments thrown at me left right and centre, and I still do. I still get trolled.
‘But, it’s all about perception! I did cry over it [lads calling her a catfish] and they said horrible things to me, but I’m going to fight back and use that resilience in me and say, “This is who I am without make-up, without lashes, a tan. This is me”.’
Good on you, Liberty!
The reality star wants to empower others to recognise their natural beauty (Picture: Backgrid)
The reality star has taken a positive stance online too, admitting that while she’s allowed to feel hurt by what happened, she’s ‘picking myself back up.’
‘I’m not ashamed,’ she declared in a make-up-free video, saying it was important to ‘tell young girls that it’s normal to be like this, you don’t have to be dolled up to the dimes every night…. that is not realistic standards.’
Liberty went on to thank the people who ‘made me feel like s**t’ because she’s ‘allowed to feel emotions,’ but she ended with a powerful message for fellow women.
Liberty wouldn’t rule out a return to the Love Island villa (Picture: ITV/REX)
‘You’re beautiful no matter what people say to you,’ she hailed.
Elsewhere in her life, Liberty is open to returning to the Love Island villa for a second stint, following in the footsteps of Adam Collard, who appeared in 2018 before making a surprise comeback in 2022.
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Liberty first found romance with Jake Cornish, but viewers were heartbroken as they exited the villa together after calling it quits.
Revealing that she would jump at the chance to go back, she shared in an AskMeAnything Reddit thread: ‘I would love to have another chance at finding love as it hasn’t worked out for me in the villa or outside the villa since.’
So, who knows… perhaps Love Island 2023 will see another familiar face enter as a bombshell?
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She wants to ‘fight back.’