Zuzana - "My Interview"

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SOURCE: 1/4/2011 - My Interview
http://www.bodyrock.tv/2011/01/04/my-interview/
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An excerpt from the short interview:
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I just have to ask that because otherwise I would not be allowed to call myself a journalist, so I just apologize in advance if I hurt your feelings with this question: Do you want to say anything about your former career in the web? Don’t get me wrong: I’m definitely not the type of journalist who drags this out. If you do not want to comment on this, it is totally ok, but it’s just my responsibility to ask. If you want to hear my insignificant view: I just don’t care about what you did I the past, because in my eyes you are a admirable and inspiring person.
Zuzana: I made a lot of bad choices when I was a teenage girl – leaving school, leaving home, trying to go out into the world much too young on my own. I got involved in something that I shouldn’t have and I wish that I could take it back. When I was 18 in a state of emotional desperation without money, job, a home or education I took a job as an erotic model. That particular choice almost ruined my entire life and led to years of darkness and abuse. I had no idea how hard it would be to pull out of it or how devastating it would be emotionally and on my spirit. It is a trap that a lot of young girls in eastern Europe fall into and I feel very lucky to have survived the experience, because many girls don’t. When you see these girls in the pictures smiling almost like they are happy having their clothes off and being exposed like this – it is the biggest lie of all. I have never met a single girl who was happy to be doing that job. Contrary to popular belief these girls don’t make a lot money doing this and they end up broken inside and left with no self-confidence or feelings of self worth. Many of them turn to drugs and alcohol to help numb the pain. The shame and the incredible fear of judgement keeps them locked into this spiral. In the end the only people who benefit from the wreckage of all these lives are the photographers and the multinational corporations like visa and mastercard who pocket money every time images of one of these girls is sold online. Freddy had been encouraging me to move out of this since we met, but he had to be in Canada most of the time and I knew that he could not fight my battle. I finally got the courage to stop and change my life when I hit the bottom. I was in debt, I was completely emotionally broken and on the verge of being an alcoholic which is something that scared me because my father is a raging alcoholic and I didn’t want to end up like that. I quit everything and told myself that I had to push through no matter what. I didn’t want to continue my life the way it was, but I didn’t want to give up living either. When you know that you have to make a major shift in your life it is always terrifying and that’s why many people get stuck in the darkness, because they feel safe in the familiar even if that reality is killing them slowly. So I quit and that was years ago. I have absolutely nothing to do with it anymore and I am not profiting from it in any way. I have a dream about doing something to help stop the cycle of exploitation that feeds on these young girls and destroys their lives. Every once in a while people try to slap me in my face with the mistakes I made to try to humiliate me and hurt me. They see the new direction that I have taken in fitness and health and this seems to infuriate them like I am impostor in my own life, like I can never be more than that broken, scared person that I was. The other day the CEO of one of the largest fitness companies in the United States was on the phone with Freddy. They called us out of the blue because they were interested in working with us. The next day they called back and the CEO said that they couldn’t work with us directly because their marketing department just couldn’t find a way to ”make it look good”. They said their brand couldn’t associate with me because of my past, however that didn’t stop them from suggesting that we sell their products on our blog to our community. That obviously won’t be happening. The message was loud and clear – personal transformations are ok as long as they are only skin deep. I am very happy with my life right now and I can say that I am finally living the way I always wanted. My life is full of love and happiness.
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