A YouTuber turned advocate from Chatham-Kent is hoping more people start to look beyond physical appearances as she promotes the idea of self-love through videos and international campaigns.
Stephanie Peloza, better known now as Stef Sanjati, grew up in Wallaceburg but has been living in Toronto, growing her social media platform and modelling career.
Blackburn News first spoke with Sanjati in 2017, after she started sharing videos that went over her transition from male to female. Since then, Sanjati said she has had some ups and downs but what she didn't necessarily see coming, was for others to look to her as an advocate for the trans community. Moving forward, Sanjati said she hopes to keep the conversation going.
"Personally, growing up in Chatham-Kent I was very unsafe. Not from what I was doing but because of the understanding of transgender people and the cultural attitude towards it and any kind of LGBTQ presence. It was very dangerous just to exist," she said. "Now, when I go back to Chatham-Kent I do feel a lot safer and I feel less afraid."
However, in recognizing that Wednesday marked Transgender Day of Remembrance, Sanjati said there is a lot more that needs to be done in terms of acceptance.
"The fact that these conversations are happening... it may make it harder in the meantime but it's moving towards a safer world," she said. "I'm optimistic."
Sanjati has also sparked conversations on topics such as Waardenburg syndrome and most recently, eating disorders. The 23-year-old recently posted a video on YouTube that went through her own personal struggles.
"In the beginning, it wasn't an intention [to be an advocate]," said Sanjati. "But moving forward, what I really want to advocate for and what I want people to understand is that there's a lot more to life than your body [image] or the way you look.
"People of all genders put a lot of importance on how we're seen and how we look and there's a lot more to value outside of that."
Whether people take to Sanjati's message is up to them, but she does have a far reach with the number of social media followers. In 2017, Sanjati had just over 400,000 YouTube subscribers. Now she has 607,000 subscribers on YouTube, 195,000 followers on Instagram, and over 73,000 followers on Twitter.
Aside from her own videos posted to YouTube that promote the idea of valuing oneself, Sanjati has been in front of the camera for some international projects as well. Recent opportunities include a Rimmel Canada campaign where Sanjati was featured in cosmetic ads -- that stemmed from Rimmel London's #iwillnotbedeleted campaign.
Sanjati said she went to a make-up event for a cosmetics company (not Rimmel) when the right person noticed her and offered her the opportunity.
"It was a really cool experience and I got to meet Rita Ora who is wonderful and very kind and sweet in person," said Sanjati. "With this more recent [Canadian] campaign... I'm glad we got to continue because the message is very important to me. Everybody has something that's different about them and striving for this standard of perfection that we're all told to reach for is dangerous and unhealthy. If I can help people become more comfortable being themselves, that's all I want to do."
Sanjati's mother, Catherine Peloza, proudly posted a picture of her daughter's Rimmel campaign on Instagram when ads starting popping up in Chatham-Kent.
View this post on InstagramSt.Clair street in Chatham. Stef used to work here
A post shared by Miss Catherine (@breadnona) on Oct 17, 2019 at 12:02pm PDT
"She's amazing," said Sanjati. "She went around to all the Shoppers Drug Marts near Wallaceburg and Chatham and tried to find them and take pictures. She's very very supportive."
Sanjati's work with Rimmel has to lead to other opportunities but details on those projects could not be disclosed.