Pilates guru was asked: 'Why are you fat?'
YouTube fitness instructor said when she was a child, someone pointed a finger at her and asked: 'Why are you fat?'
She is best known as Blogilates on YouTube and the creator of the famed POP Pilates workout.
She boasts the No. 1 female fitness channel on YouTube, with more than 3.1 million subscribers and 340 million views since 2009.
And more than 3,500 fans turned up yesterday morning to exercise with Vietnamese-American fitness instructor Cassey Ho, who hosted Singapore's first-ever POP Pilates workout for the Zespri SunGold KiwiFest at Empress Lawn.
But for the 29-year-old, who is not married,success did not come without a price.
Although she is today an expert on staying in shape, she had to overcome the same insecurities and self-esteem issues that plague many women today.
Miss Ho said she was "quite chubby" growing up and experienced her fair share of bullying in school.
She also struggled with an "eating disorder" after competing in a bikini competition in 2012 and has been hit with body-shaming comments on social media because "I don't have the biggest boobs or the tiniest waist or the big butt".
Miss Ho told The New Paper in an interview before the event: "When I was around eight years old, someone pointed a finger at me and said, 'Why are you fat?'
"I didn't even know what 'fat' was, I was just going to school. I had friends and I did whatever I did.
"And all of a sudden, I thought I had a problem because somebody pointed it out and it really, really hurt."
Miss Ho first opened up about her "eating disorder" in a YouTube video in January.
She said: "My (bikini competition) coach, whom I stupidly listened to, had me working out four hours a day and eating 1,000 calories.
"In eight weeks, I lost 15lbs (6.8kg) and I'm not that tall so that's a lot of weight for my body.
"I was a mean person, I was unhappy. I looked a little bit more toned, but it wasn't worth it because I wasn't even thinking straight."
'BEAUTIFUL'
Ho was also influenced by images of "beautiful girls with beautiful bodies" on social media, thinking "that could be me".
After the competition was over, she developed an "eating disorder", afraid to even eat apples and bananas, thinking they would make her fat.
She said: "I didn't dare touch brown rice. I had that bad a problem."
For two years, Miss Ho suffered metabolic damage, meaning she kept putting on weight despite working out and eating healthily.
"That was terrible because I am a fitness instructor and to look at your body but not know how to make it work was so frustrating because I know the formula - work hard, results come - and that didn't work for me for two years," she said.
The turning point for Miss Ho was when she realised that she needed to eat for energy, nourishment and happiness, and not for her looks.
It was the switch in her mindset that changed everything for her.
At the same time, Miss Ho also had to deal with parental disapproval, especially from her father.
A traditional Asian man, he looked down on her career choice as he had wanted her to become a doctor instead.
He would tell her she would fail and that she was dishonouring the family. She would break down in tears amid screaming matches.
Miss Ho, who studied biology at Whittier College in California, ended up not speaking to her parents for a few years, but made amends a few years ago.
She said: "They are happy now because they see that I'm successful, happy and making a living out of what I love to do.
"It shouldn't have taken this long to show them that I can be happy without being a doctor or a lawyer or fitting into these moulds of what success is supposed to look like.
"It's sad that we lost a few years of our relationship because they couldn't see that I knew how to figure it out for myself. But they weren't finding a way for me to be happy.
"I think happiness equals success, but success doesn't always equal happiness."
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