Ambassador Spotlight: Steffi G.

Here at Slick Chicks we believe our ambassadors are the forefront of our success. Our ambassadors are chosen based on their impactful missions to help better society and better themselves in the process. Our ambassadors are dedicated to their communities and for that (and more), we are proud to have them as the main representatives of our brand.  

Steffi G. is an inclusive lifestyle content creator, disability advocate, and model. Her empowering content focuses primarily on adaptive fashion, inclusive beauty, and body positivity. Below, Steffi gives us a little insight into her views on perseverance, how she empowers herself, and her fight for inclusion in the modeling industry. 

Gratitude is essential for me to begin each day, I take a moment and just appreciate everything in my life before I even leave my bed.
When life happens and I start feeling overwhelmed I stop what I’m doing, and I take some time to feel what I’m feeling. Then I try to understand why I’m currently overwhelmed and think of ways to bring myself back to a calm state. It’s important to acknowledge when the day becomes too much, and if this is the case there is absolutely nothing wrong with taking a step back and trying again the next day. You’ll be surprised what a self-care day can do for the rest of your week or even month!

My greatest motivation is that no one is coming to save the day, it is my job to get myself to where I want to be. Without perseverance there is no success. Sources of motivation and a support system are imperative to your journey, but it’s in each of us to find that fire within to get us to where we want to be.  

There is constructive criticism and there is noise, once I learned to separate the two, I was able to stop worrying about every single comment I came across. I am always open to constructive criticism because that’s part of being a content creator and what some would refer to as a “public figure”. But the rest is just noise, it’s opinions people will always have and it’s not my job to live to everyone’s expectation.

My overall determination comes from my near-death experiences if I am completely honest. Being so close to not making it, and then making a full recovery really makes me think my work here is not done. I have so much advocacy to do, so much change to initiate, so much life to live and show others that it’s work living, and I am determined to make each day count.

The industry can be tough, it has made me thick skinned as some would say. You have to be open to change, to trying new things and you definitely have to be prepared to be told no more often than you’d like to admit.
But this same industry has taught me self-love and acceptance, it has taught me to never give up and to always continue knocking on doors until the right one opens up. The modeling industry is learning about inclusion, and I am here to serve as a change maker. I’m not going anywhere; I will continue to rattle the industry until inclusion becomes the new normal.

Social media has opened up so many doors for me, I have met wonderful people along the way, and it has allowed me to connect with individuals worldwide. Sure, social media can be a double-edged sword, but I use social media as a tool to connect, share and advocate. For me, social media has a lot of potential if used properly. The negative can easily be tuned out if you’re a confident individual, and if you are aware that you can’t please every single follower no matter how hard you try.

Because of my osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bones), my doctors have always limited their expectations when it comes to my fracture recoveries. When I was 20 years old, I shattered my right knee and my ortho set the bar very low for my recovery, warning me that I would possibly lose my ability to put weight on it and that would mean no more independent transferring for me. One thing about me is I will do everything in my power to maintain my independence, so when he told me that I might lose some of it I immediately started thinking of ways to rehabilitate on my own. And I went with swimming, I swam laps 5 times a week for over 6 weeks, and to my surprise (and everyone else’s) it sped up my recovery tremendously. In no time I was transferring on my own again and my knee felt fine with weight on it. By this time, I had already formed the habit of going to the gym, but up until now it was only for the pool. That’s when I made my way inside, and the rest is history. I had a trial-and-error experience with every machine I laid my eyes on, until I found a routine and little by little, I kept adding new workouts to it. Now a days fitness is an essential part of my life, not only because it helps me physically, but mentally as well. Its always a challenge, and I’m always up for it.

Representation matters to me because we exist, people with disabilities are here and we don’t plan to go anywhere anytime soon. We desperately need an accurate representation of what we look like, what we are like on a daily basis, so that the stigma can vanish. Representation is important because I did not see anyone representing me growing up, and I’m here to change that for future generations.

Slick Chicks is a safe space for the disabled community, we see ourselves in every single ad, every campaign, and every product. Slick Chick’s mission to empower people is exactly what the industry needs more of. If there is one brand I’m proud to represent and be a part of it is most definitely the Slick Chicks fam.

Follow along with Steffi and her empowering advocacy and modeling work on Instagram.