Cerrie Burnell shares her body story: 'When I was a child I battled to get that prosthetic arm off - this is me!'
CERRIE BURNELL JOINS LOOSE WOMEN BODY STORIES
Having faced prejudice due to her disability, TV presenter-turned-children's author Cerrie joined us to share her body story.
Cerrie, who was born with part of her right arm missing, faced criticism when she was a children's TV presenter with parents complaining her missing arm was scaring their kids.
But today, Cerrie hit back at the critics.
'I'm very wary of this word hurtful and I think that makes it personal to me, which it was but in another sense was it was much broader than that,' Cerrie said.
'Almost akin to racism, it was a prejudice... misguided or afraid,' Cerrie added. 'Some children are scared of my arm - it’s a weird arm, lets just say it how it is - some children are scared of the dark, spiders. It’s the parents role to reassure the child'.
Doctors forced Cerrie to wear a prosthetic arm when she was growing up but aged nine she decided she was far more comfortable without.
'There was pressure to cover up my arm, my parents really tried to resist that, they were advised to tell me to wear a prosthetic, and I would tell my mum, "I'm more beautiful without it",' Cerrie explained.
'That was at four years old and they said, "We know but you’ve got to wear it". At nine my parents went to the doctor and said "We can’t make her wear it".'
And Cerrie joined our Body Stories campaign by sharing a bikini photo and proving her body confidence.
'Because I’ve grown up doing a lot of dance you get used to being in a leotard so you have a different relationship with being scantily clad,' she said.
'This is the biggest size I’ve ever been, I'm a size 12. I used to be a life model when I was younger so I’ve always been body confident, because of what I went through when I was younger battling to get that heavy arm off I was like here I am, this is me'.
Watch the video to see Cerrie's full interview.
You can read all about our Loose Women Body Stories here.