Appearance diversity: Turia Pitt tells her story.

Last week Australian Women's Weekly released their July issue featuring Turia Pitt, burns survivor, on the cover. I wrote about that here, and it was republished on Daily Life.

Since then, Turia and I have been in touch on Twitter and she agreed to share her story here as part of the Appearance Diversity series. I know how busy she is with surgery, speaking, charity and media commitments, so I'm so appreciative of her for writing this guest post.

She's an amazing woman - successful, confident and physically fit. She told me that the excercise she does now doesn't hurt her any more than it did before her accident. She also has a message for young people struggling with their facial difference:

"If you don’t have a problem with it, they won’t."

Turia works tirelessly raising money and awareness for Interplast - a charity that provides reconstructive surgery to underprivileged people. She recently climbed the Great Wall of China, and she's written a little about that here.

Meet Turia Pitt.

"At the start, my self esteem was significantly affected. Before my accident I used to walk around with confidence and a lot of self-belief. All of that was ripped away from me when I was trapped in a grass fire during the 2011 Kimberly Ultra Marathon – receiving burns to 65% of my total body surface area. It’s taken years (this September will mark the third anniversary) but I’m finally at the point where I was before the fire.

My life has changed dramatically. Before the fire my partner and I lived up north and I was an engineer working on the mines. Now we live on the South Coast and I am a motivational speaker. I’ve lost independence, most of my fingers and my appearance is completely altered. Some things have stayed constant though: my wonderful partner, my beautiful family and my incredible mates.

Beauty is: standing up straight, having confidence, looking people in the eye and having the ability to look in the mirror and think, “Yep, I look damn fine today”.

It’s an absolute honour to be asked to be the cover girl for Australia’s highest circulating magazine. For that, I’m incredibly grateful.

Interplast provides free reconstructive surgery to people in developing countries. So they could perform surgery on people with cleft palate, women who are victims of an acid attack or even other burn survivors. My plastic surgeon also volunteers for Interplast on an annual basis, so you can understand why I feel so close to the cause!

I’ve just returned from trekking the Great Wall of China with a group of 20 extraordinary women. Our group raised close to $200,000 which is a phenomenal effort for this inaugural event. Next year we will be taking on the Inca Trek and we hope to raise even more for this worthy organisation.

While I was in hospital I couldn’t do anything for myself. I couldn’t feed myself, I couldn’t brush my hair and I couldn’t even take myself to the bathroom. Depression sunk in because I was an ultra-athlete and now I couldn’t even walk a single step. I realised that to get through this I would have to readjust my goals – I would have to be content with achieving the little things. Taking a single step. Climbing a stair. Raising my arms."

Turia signed off her email to me with such an appropriate quote:

“When you work on the little things big things happen”

― Rodger Halston

Visit Turia Pitt's website.

Follow her on Instagram.

 

Why it's important for Turia Pitt, burns survivor, to grace the cover of a national women's magazine.

Turia Pitt is one of the most important people to feature on the cover of a magazine. I can't think of a person with a facial difference to feature so prominently in mainstream media in my lifetime. Turia Pitt is a burns survivor and she's pictured in her natural and beautiful state - not retouched - on the cover of this month's Australian Women's Weekly. I've given up on buying women's magazines, but today I will be buying this one.

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Magazine covers are reserved for idealised versions of beauty. Faces without freckles or laugh lines. Perfectly straight teeth. Taut foreheads. Even supermodels are airbrushed. It's a big deal for a woman of colour or larger than a size 10 to be featured. Physical beauty seems to be everything.

In 2011 Turia Pitt sustained burns to 65% of her body during a marathon in Western Australia. She used to work as a model, and then in the diamond industry.

(Source)

 

Her life - and appearance - changed dramatically when at 24 years old, she was burnt. She spent 864 days in hospital, had over 100 surgeries, her fingers were amputated and she's undergone rigorous rehabilitation to learn to walk again.

Three years after her accident, Turia says she's the "luckiest girl alive". She's certainly tenacious. She's an ultra marathon champion - recently riding from Sydney to Uluru and tackling a section of The Great Wall of China to raise funds for Interplast, the reconstructive charity she's affiliated with. She's also studying for a Masters of Engineering. And earlier this year she was the NSW finalist in the Australian of the Year awards. She's got a loving partner, Michael. Talk about superwoman! She has achieved so much.

(Source)

Turia told AWW

"Being on the cover of The Australian Women's Weekly is a huge honour," says Turia. "I feel very humbled."

"For me, it sends the message that confidence equals beauty. There are a lot of women out there who are so beautiful but don’t have the confidence, and that's what gets you over the line."

I asked Helen McCabe, AWW's editor, about the importance of Turia on the cover.

She tweeted: "I am snowed under... But the reaction is a bit overwhelming today!". She confirmed the reaction was positive. "It is fantastic", she said.

I tweeted back: "I agree! it's so good to see appearance diversity on the cover of a women's mag. As someone who looks different, I thank you."

And that's the truth. I am so thankful to Helen and Turia for giving women with facial differences hope that we can make the mainstream media, without alteration to our appearance. Turia's scars are visible, the texture of her face has not been altered, and her hand - minus some fingers - is not hidden. She's beautiful.

When I was at high school, I made a comment that I wanted to enter Dolly's Model of the Year. It was the kind of comment said with the seriousness of a 15 year old, heady on Impulse and the naive desire that people are only valued on physical beauty. I wanted to be in Dolly with Miranda and Apia and Shannon - those young models I grew up with. Another student told me that if I did enter, I'd have to change my appearance, put make up on and make sure my photos were in black and white. I guess her harshness was the reality though. I just wouldn't fit the norm that people are used to.

Turia's cover photo gives me hope. Young, impressionable women will see that beauty comes in all forms, beauty is strength and recovery, and that magazine covers don't have to be photoshopped.

Her story and achievements also show that life can go on to be extraordinary, even after acquiring a disability. I love that her story isn't just about her appearance. My friend and colleague James Partridge, CEO of Changing Faces (and burns survivor) tweeted "Great to see that Australia's biggest selling magazine @WomensWeeklyMag is marking Turia Pitt's achievements".

James also said

"I was delighted to see the achievements of Turia Pitt so deservedly recognised in her invitation to join the Women of the Future judging panel of The Australian Women's Weekly - and we can see why she was chosen to be on the cover of this month’s magazine. It’s because of her confidence and her success as a mining engineer, fund-raiser extraordinaire and inspiration to many – and we salute her here at Changing Faces because she is proving that people with facial burns or other unusual facial features do and can achieve those lifetime goals.

"And we also know that her appearance on the front cover of a very popular magazine will challenge public perceptions – I was delighted to see that the magazine favourited my tweet because it is promoting what we call ‘face equality’. No longer should people with facial burns like Turia be subjected to stereotyping, prejudice of discrimination but be treated with respect and equality.

"We hope Turia will agree to join our latest project to promote face equality which is called, appropriately I think, What Success Looks Like."

I want people to get used to facial difference. I want them to see appearance diversity everywhere. I don't want people to be scared and look away from someone who looks different. I want people to see facial difference as successful rather than a perceived failure. I want the media to play more of a positive part in changing the way people perceive beauty.

Turia Pitt's cover is a game changer. The AWW's monthly readership is 2.4 million (magazines), and its website receives 21 million hits a month. All those people are going to see a different kind of beauty than they're used to!

The media needs to take a positive risk of inclusion. Young girls and women (and males) everywhere need to see that facial difference can be celebrated. This is exciting!

Visit Turia Pitt's website.