We recently connected with Ryley Gordon and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Ryley, thanks for joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

The biggest risk I had to take was breaking away from generations of family cycles and stepping into my own voice when it came to body image, self love and holistic wellness. For a long time I thought negative self talk and poor health/eating habits was just a part of life. I started posting modeling photos on social media, which were highly edited and curated to be “perfect” but not long after I took a risk to share a more real and relatable side of myself. This was scary to say the least, and was a pivotable moment in my social media journey.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Ryley Gordon. I am a girl from Southern California that has a deep love for the out doors and all things health & wellness. I am an avid surfer, hiker, and enjoy practicing yoga. After years of unanswered health problems, I started to fall in love with natural, holistic living where I completely transformed my lifestyle into a more conscious one connected to nature. I started modeling when I moved to Los Angeles about 6 years ago and heavily focused on being “skinny” and “perfect”. My online presence was made up of mostly modeling photos that were edited and kind of hid the real me. About 3 years into my modeling career I decided to make a change in my content and started to show more of my authentic self. The belly rolls, the cellulite, the no makeup days, the “unflattering” angles, I showed it all. Although this was scary at first, the response I got from women was so much more rewarding than what I have ever felt in the past. Now I run my social media platfrom focused around self love and healthy living.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The biggest thing I had to unlearn as a woman is that focusing so much on our body weight or appearance is not what life is all about. As humans we offer so much more in this world that makes us special. Our personalities, or creativity, the love we give, that is what matters. Marketing schemes and companies like to capitalize on our insecurities, therefor our previous generations have been taught to constantly hate ourselves. It is up to our current and future generations to brake this cycle and relearn what it means to build a healthy confident society.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Being online you are exposed to a lot of opinions. The hardest thing to overcome is the judgement or harsh comments I receive from people who may not understand my mission or think I don’t deserve to share insecurities because of my past career. It takes a lot of courage to ignore those negative voices, but I know my mission is so much stronger and the people who I have inspired makes it so much more worth going.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryleygordon/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RyleyGordon
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryleygordonx?lang=en