TikTok Star Tefi Pessoa on Uplifting Other Women 

Social media can often be a force used to pit women against each other through competition and comparison. Pessoa says that as a woman who "grew up around a lot of women who loved other women," she's tried to change the space by uplifting others.

"You can give somebody everything, including your face, your physicality. You can give somebody your heart, your mind, your soul, the world. ... and it'll never be enough," she tells Sonia Baghdady of Advocate Now. "I just want to remind women that you don't owe anybody anything, and whatever you want to give is more than enough."

Media spaces can be filled with unrealistic beauty standards, but Pessoa says she doesn't counter them through body positivity -- rather body neutrality. Rather than focusing on loving her body, she chooses to focus on accepting it.

"You [are] trying to find peace with something that's never going to change," she explains. "When you finally give up, you can find room for gratitude."

Pessoa shares that she now bases her self worth on what she can do instead of how she looks. After changing her perspective, she realized her negative body image was indicative of larger struggles in her life, which she was able to work towards changing.

"I just started looking at it like, what can I do? And if I feel so bad, what can I do about it?" she says, "Realistically... What's the real issue here?"

For more interviews like this, watch Advocate Now on The Advocate Channel.