Nicole Sadiee: The Girl Behind The Freckles
If beauty is in the eyes of its beholder, then Nicole Sadiee is our proof. With 23,000 followers and an average of 2,000 likes per post, the 17-year-old Georgia native has recently taken Instagram by storm. Sadie’s strategically sprinkled specks; bright hazel eyes and plump lips are only a few characteristics of what adds to her captivating uniqueness.
Over the course of a long facetime conversation from her couch, Nicole explains the power of beauty over social media, abusive parents, becoming independent at a young age, and growing up with freckles.
“I used to hate how I looked! I started embracing my features at the age of 16”
Nicole Sadie: Kids were very ignorant when I was younger. They would tease me for the little moles I had on my face. Because of my goofy personality, I would try to laugh it off but on the inside the things they said would hurt.
Growing up, my parents always told me that I was ugly, I used to always want to have surgery to have a white girl nose. They would constantly demean all my features and remind me that they wished my nose was slimmer or my lips were smaller. Because of that, I hated how I looked during elementary and middle school.
I received a lot of overwhelming attention when I started getting freckles. The attention now makes me feel warm and nice inside, but at first I didn’t like the attention because I was wondering what the heck was going on with my face. Was it going to stop? How was it going to spread? Will it spread to my whole face?
“Once they see your followers and likes go up, people will say the meanest things to you”
Getting attention on Instagram you get to see what celebrities go through when it’s related to social media. Once they see your followers and likes go up, people will say the craziest and meanest things to you. I think courage [to me] is no matter what people say or do, you are still doing you, showing up on time, and being fearless. Being your true self is very courageous, especially now a days because everyone is geared towards looking, and acting a certain way.
“When I was living with my mom it was hard and stressful. The relationship with my mom was draining me.”
“When I was living with my mom it was hard and stressful. The relationship with my mom was draining me.”
I had to grow up so fast. I don’t know how I became so strong or how I got to this point. I always remind myself that nothing lasts forever and things change. Going through custody battles with my parents caused me to have periods of joy, sadness, happiness, and depression. And throughout all of that, I grew and it all made me stronger.
I feel as though at this stage in my life it is very important to grow and set a foundation. Even though I am young, I think I need to set a foundation for myself, especially since I don’t have my parents with me. So if you are draining me and making me feel like I am inadequate in your eyes then I don’t want to be around because that is unhealthy.
I was an advocate for CARE, Care is an organization that caters towards battered women and children. Working with that organization made me realize how blessed I really am. I’ve never gone through these traumatizing situations that most of the women in the organization have been through and I just felt really lucky. I always thought I was from the bottom, but seeing how happy these people were at their very worst, changed my perspective.
I was always like, “why am I sad when I have basic necessities to go to school and do what I have to do to be what I want to be”, it’s just a phase.
“If you don’t find yourself beautiful then other people won't find you beautiful”
There was a certain point where if you weren’t a certain weight, you were fat, and if you weren’t “model status” you weren’t beautiful. You were just labeled as a “big girl”. Now a day’s people are accepting bigger girls and embracing their curves. I feel like social media played a big part in this transformation and reshaped people’s definitions of beauty.
Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and if you don’t find yourself beautiful, then other people won’t find you beautiful, and I find that to be very true. I went through this experience when I was younger and other people recognized that energy and threw it right back at me. If you step out everyday and speak daily affirmations to yourself then other people will treat you the way you see yourself. There is no definition of beauty. Beauty is in everyone and everything.
“I want to show young black girls the right path because everyone is always telling young black girls what they can’t do.”
Dear 10-year-old self, you are beautiful, God is always with you and I am always with you. I am very independent and I would remind myself that you could do what you want to do. I wish I could have started modeling at 10 because I probably would have been in a different place.