Today, Ekin-Su has almost five million followers on her Instagram and TikTok profiles, but as a teenager, this London-born girl of Turkish descent just wanted to be noticed.
“If we want to be really honest, I was 17. Should have been 18, but I lied. I somehow got away with it. I went to South Korea to compete in Miss Asia Pacific,” Ekin-Su reveals to M&F from her. “When I was just 17, I flew to South Korea all by myself, except for the management company I had at the time, with these beautiful women from all over the world. We had Miss Russia, Venezuela, Brazil, we had China, and I was just amazed at how stunning these diverse women were.”
Yet there were other aspects of the beauty pageant industry that Ekin-Su was less enamored with. “Obviously, I had it ten years ago, people talked about eating carrots all day,” she recalls. “I didn’t think it was a lifestyle I could be a role model for.”
As an impressionable youngster, Ekin-Su experienced the side effects of following fad diets. “I did this stupid diet when I was in school called the ‘apple green diet,’” she says. “I won’t recommend this to anyone. In the morning I had an apple. In the afternoon I had an apple. In the evening I had an apple. And I only drank water. My hair started to bother me, I was always angry, I was restless. It’s not worth it. The best time to lose weight is when I’m actually eating balanced meals.”
Fortunately, a formative personal relationship would develop that would teach her the value of building muscle instead of trying to get seriously lean.
Ekin-Su learned to love proteins
“When I met my first boyfriend, he was always at the gym,” says Ekin-Su. “He was eight years older than me, he had a very muscular body and he took me to the gym for the first time – and I was so scared,” says Ekin-Su. “I think he really taught me that we need to stop eating too much sugar. And to look and feel good, you need protein.”
Ekin-Su soon discovered that the gym was not a place to fear and slowly built up her level of healthy eating by adding steak, salmon, chicken and fish to her meals. Fat was never off the table, but she is now drawn to natural fats from meat and fish.
Ekin-Su was previously obsessed with cardio M&F from her that she now feels motivated to also put her stronger body through resistance training with weights. And now that she’s already 31 years old, her consistency is paying off. “I notice that my body is changing,” beams the beautiful brunette. “When I wear a dress, I look nice and round, like I have a shape for myself. I also feel very strong mentally. When you do a session with heavy weights, the feeling afterwards is incredible. You feel like you can take over the world and also perform well academically.”
Ekin-Su has found peace by eliminating negative voices
Keen to promote a realistic view of beauty, Ekin-Su took her training-honed academic prowess to a debate at the University of Oxford in 2023. She explained that the accessibility of social media gives everyone a voice, encouraging empowerment and representation. Still, she believes we should listen to experts instead of self-proclaimed influencers who have little experience.
“We can’t listen to ‘Amy’ on the road, who read a book about what women should look like,” Ekin-Su jokes in all seriousness. “We should listen to the voices of professionals. People who have studied, like doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists. I just think things are easily thrown onto the internet,” she tells M&F Hers. “Everyone has a phone.”
While Ekin-Su generally welcomes the freedom and possibilities of social media, she also wants people to think twice and look at the credentials of the “expert” on their screen. She wrote the book last year Be your own best friend: and other lessons from a life lived both in and out of the spotlight.
The model and TV personality have no doubt discovered that shutting out negative voices works just as well offline.
“Do the right things,” she says. “Like cutting out certain people from your life that aren’t good for you, or friendships, management teams, or even boyfriends that you know are going to affect your work, and who you are mentally. It’s all a puzzle, and it all comes together. So it’s all about taking the right steps and working hard. There are going to be friends who don’t go to the gym very often, and it’s about having the willpower to say, ‘Well, I’m still going to spare another half hour.’ and run outside’. Or, “I’m going for a walk.” Even in those cold winter nights it’s hard sometimes, but I think once you do it you’ll feel great afterwards.
Ekin-Su says her own very personal journey has taught her that looking good is simply a welcome side effect of feeling good. “Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes,” she explains. “It’s about how you feel, and I think if we can turn that around, most people will have a different perception of beauty.”
To follow Ekin-Su on Instagram, click here. and on TikTok, click here.
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