Judy Boyce is a mother, grandmother, businesswoman, mentor, friend, and now pageant organiser.
She is sending a strong message that being plus-sized is no reason to cower and hide from public glare, and loving yourself for who you are is to be embraced from your toenails to every single strand atop your head.
She is a plus-sized diva and she’s not afraid to show and tell.
She is the kind of woman that is not afraid to speak her mind and some would say she has attitude for days, but she means well and she loves to laugh and help others.
Judy is the face behind the Miss Plus Size Diva Barbados pageant slated for July 3. She had a chat with EASY magazine during which she shared her story and why she wanted to showcase plus-sized women.
“We decided to start Miss Plus Size Diva Barbados because we realised that a lot of the pageants now and the current plus-sized pageant, does not take the shows internationally. Everybody just has a show and it ends there. We want to offer more and we want to sell Barbados,” she said.
“We are taking this show to the international level as the winner of the pageant will enter Miss Plus Size Universe in Trinidad. We have seven delegates and a wild card, which is eight. That came into play in case one of the contestants fall ill or something happens unexpectedly, we would have a back-up.”
Judy, who operates Kenju’s The Salon and Kenju’s Kids, she has reached out and mentored several plus-sized women in the past, but that wasn’t enough. She wanted to do more.
“I have tried to motivate plus-sized women and children who have self-esteem issues to let them understand that size does not matter. At the end of the day you have to love yourself. I see myself as a motivator and a person who looks out for plus-sized people who are having difficulties in recognising their size and who they are.
“I am in my 40s and I weigh 262 pounds so I do consider myself plus size. My family is big boned and growing up I wasn’t always plus-sized. I gained my weight in my 30s but I always used to admire my sister because she was always plus-sized and I thought that I had enough of being skinny and I wanted to carry that thick look so I just went for it.
“I ate a lot of things I never did before including chocolate, ice cream, sweet drinks and things like that because I realised that when the movie stars wanted to gain or lose weight for a show they can. I wanted to try thick so I just started to eat a lot of junk basically,” she explained.
After piling on the pounds she wanted, she was pleased, noting “I am really, really, happy with my size” and she does not want to lose it. She was quick to point out that being a certain size does not mean you are unhealthy either.
“At my age I have absolutely no health issues,” she stated.
Along her journey, she encountered a “few people” who made it their business to tell her how big she was getting. Even though she wondered why it mattered so much to them, she did not contemplate shedding the extra pounds.
“I wanted people to accept me for who I am,” she said. “Being big did not change me from who I was before to who I am now,” adding that she knows she cannot stop the criticisms and negativity.
“I use myself to motivate others. At first some people shy away but I tell them, however, that if you’re plus size and you’re not comfortable, do some exercises daily. Go on a diet and try to be comfortable with who you are because at the end of the day, being big for everyone is not going to be like being big for Judy.
“I am plus-sized and I am still healthy. However, not everybody will be plus-sized and healthy. So what I try to do, those who are not totally comfortable, we sit and talk, we work out a programme and I try to help them lose some of the weight and make them more comfortable.
“We do a water challenge, an apple challenge, and exercise. I do a lot of reading on the Internet and I went to a doctor to give me some information so I can proceed in how to help people because I also work with Farrs Children’s Home and there are children there that have self-esteem issues,” she shared.
Working with the wards at the St Peter state home is something she is passionate about. She reached out to them because she did not want her pageant to be just about showcasing the delegates and making money.
She wanted something more meaningful, something where she could actually touch people’s lives. She adopted the home, renamed the Marina Brewster Centre at Farrs in 2014, and she and the delegates have been working with the family there.
She is also working with the Precious Touch Foundation and some of the proceeds from the pageant will be donated to them.
“I find a lot of people go into everything to make money but no one cares about the less fortunate. So, my aim in whatever I do is to always give back. To me it’s the only way you go forward,” she said matter-of-factly.
To date, preparations for the pageant are going smoothly and last month she travelled to New York, where she made a presentation on the show.
“I was kind of scared in a way because this is my first year of venturing into this and honestly I didn’t expect to have gotten this far. There was already a plus-sized pageant . . . . It was just time for plus-sized women to step out.
“In the United States people are promoting plus-size women . . . . Sports Illustrated did it, and I see this as the time to step out to recognise and represent women. People would also ask what separates us from the other pageant. I say we are catering to intelligent, gorgeous, curvy women of Barbados. The girls that we have selected are confident and self- assured and they know who and what they are,” Judy said confidently. (Green Bananas Media)
