“Today is #CHOOSEDay and today, I wanna tell you a story of choosing oneself and a partner that can help you choose yourself,” Miss Earth Philippines 2023 Yllana Marie “Yana” Aduana wrote in the caption of her Instagram post last Tuesday.

The 24-year-old stunner said she had experienced being body shamed when she was younger. Interestingly, she disclosed that she was body shamed not because she was stout or overweight but “for being too thin and for being too fully figured both at the same time”.

“Some people who were close to me before used to tell me I was losing so much weight and was ‘too thin’ but then in the modelling industry, I was considered still a little more full than the stereotype,” Aduana, who was proclaimed Miss FIT Philippines in 2021, said.

“It was confusing for me; I was just a teenager getting through life; trying my best to win through Bulimia nervosa; my brutal enemy. Realizing now, it was rock bottom,” she added.

Nonetheless, she was thankful because she said she is not the type of person who can get easily swayed by others’ opinions. “Sure, I’ll get confused but I can always efficiently navigate the right way through and go about doing my own thing and what’s gonna make my heart happy so long as I know it’s the right thing to do and I’m happy with it.”

The beauty queen from Siniloan, Laguna added that finding the right partner or companion can be helpful in achieving one’s vision or objective and in bringing out confidence in oneself.

Aduana will be celebrating her 25th birthday this week on Friday, 7 July.