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Swedish Model With 3 Foot 4 Inch Legs Reveals She Used To Be Bullied For Her Appearance

Swedish Model With 3 Foot 4 Inch Legs Reveals She Used To Be Bullied For Her Appearance

Ia Östergren has more than 150,000 followers on her Instagram, thanks largely to her extraordinarily long legs

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

If ever you're feeling a bit down about your appearance, particularly if you're a young person, remember this story and don't worry about it.

A Swedish bodybuilder who has become famous for her 40-inch inside leg measurement has spoken about how she got bullied and taunted at school for being tall and gangly.

Ia Östergren has more than 150,000 followers on her Instagram, thanks largely to her extraordinarily long legs. The 34-year-old Swedish mum says it wasn't always this way, though. In fact, she used to think her legs were horrible and was embarrassed by them.

She was left depressed and was bullied and taunted by the other kids at her school because she was really tall. She now stands at 5 feet 10 inches, and is perfectly happy about it.

Ia Östergren.
CEN/Instagram

She managed to break the cycle of her poor self-image and learned to love her body by taking up sports in 2013.

Since then she has built up a huge online following - for whatever reason she is massively popular in Russia - got married to fellow Swedish bodybuilder Torbjörn Östergren and has two daughters.

The two obviously have a lot in common, they met over Instagram and both love working out. Bizarrely (or perhaps not if that is your thing) Ia says that she eats 2.2kg of meat every week to maintain her muscle levels.

More important than that, she is now ok within her own body, which she attributes to her attitude of trying to enjoy herself as much as she can and taking every opportunity that live presents to her.

On her Instagram she told her followers: "You have one life. How do you want to spend it? Apologising for being yourself? Regretting? Hating?

"Be brave. Believe in yourself and put your best foot forward. You have this one life. Enjoy it."

Sound advice if ever I've heard it.

I mean, Ia and her husband obviously work very hard on the way that they look, and whilst we aren't all destined to be huge bodybuilders or have ridiculously long legs or whatever, the message remains the same.

The things that you hate about yourself could just be the thing that someone really likes about you, whether it's your long legs or your wicked sense of humour.

Ia and Torbjörn Östergren.
CEN/Instagram

To quote the great prophet RuPaul, if you can't love yourself, how in the hell are you gonna love somebody else?

Can I get an amen?

Featured Image Credit: CEN/Instagram

Topics: Bodybuilding, Sweden