FOR A LONG-TIME I CONSIDERED MYSELF WHITE SAYS REALITY STAR MARJOLEIN BLOKLAND (VIDEO)

Former Nairobi Diaries star Marjolein Blokland has opened up about how she viewed herself in regards to her race and body type while growing up. Speaking to media personality Pinky Ghelani on What Women Want, the fitness trainer said when she moved to Kenya, she considered herself white and not black, as mixed-race kids were not common in Netherlands at the time.

“It’s been a mix of both culture and society, when I came to Kenya from the Netherlands, I considered myself white, I though I was white and I wanted to be white. Mixed kids are a lot common now than in the early 90s when I was born, now it’s like all ages and it normal,” she said.

Marjolein also said while in the Netherlands, she attended a school where there were only three mixed kids, “I remember going to school in Netherlands and in the entire school there was a girl like me, a Moroccan boy and an Indonesian boy and that was it. In my neighbourhood, there was us, a Filipino family, the same Moroccan boy. It was white people everywhere and I thought I was white.”

She said after moving to Kenya, she had to get used to seeing black people, “I remember it was a bit of a shock. When left the airport, I was used to see white people and now you’re seeing black people so I had to get used to that. I joined Braeburn and the only transition was for me, was to learn and speak English but other than that I was relatively comfortable but still wanted to be white. I flat ironed my hair untill it had split ends because I wanted to be white,” she added.

Blokland said she started embracing more of herself when she was 16 after being mocked by fellow students, “I started embracing being me more and also as I went out to the world to look for jobs you start interacting with people. You look at brow people and you’re like ‘she looks more African’ and then your happy with where you are and how you look rather than being unhappy and trying to look like something or someone that you can never look like,” she said.

The fitness trainer later joined the modelling industry and at some point, she was forced to skip meals to achieve her slim model figure. “Reaching my 20s, I was like what’s the next step in my career because I need to to start making some form of money. The fashion industry in Kenya is great but if you want make serious cash and really want to grow, you either go to South Africa, Europe, U.S or China and you also need to lose weight.

International requirements at the time were 36 hips, 34 waist and 36 chest. I was 39 hips, 32 waist and 34 chest and I was at my smallest. We are talking about not eating properly, skipping meals, doing cardio and constancy being on calories deficit. At 22 I made a choice to quit modeling and changed careers to fitness,” she stated. 

Watch the video below!