58 AsiaSpa July/August 2017Tête-À-Tête
Writer Amber GibsonNikki Sharp on making her role as an
influencer an authentic oneD
on't call Nikki Sharp a social
media influencer. She may
have hundreds of thousands of
Instagram followers but more importantly
she’s a bestselling author, wellness expert,
media personality and one heck of a sharp
businesswoman.
During her international modelling
career, Sharp lived in Shanghai, Sydney,
Bangkok, Seoul and Athens. The 30-year-
old blonde now runs her own media
company and brand in Los Angeles. Sharp's
gregarious charm and tanned physique are
quintessentially Southern California.
“I’m finally very comfortable with who
I am and I know my path,” Sharp says. “I
believe a lot of finding this out was the travel
I did. Looking back at my 20-year-old self, I
never would have thought this is where I'd
be in 10 years!”
While modelling, Sharp coped with
stress, depression, insomnia and body
dysmorphia with repeated cycles of binging
and restriction. After a particularly horrible
night in New York, when her drug-addicted
roommate kicked her out of their apartment,Sharp had a catalyst moment. She returned
home to Colorado and inflicted a 30-day
mandate on herself to cook healthily for
a month. Learning to make hummus and
stocking up on better snacks like dried
mango, coconut water
and dark chocolate
were baby steps on the
path to a new healthy
lifestyle that she now
shares with the world.
“The eating disorder
is without a doubt the
most horrible thing I've
ever gone through,”
Sharp admits. “But
it’s given me so much
perspective on the
world and allowed me to become who I
am today.” After her break in Colorado,
Sharp returned to London in 2012 and took
courses on raw food, sport and everyday living
nutrition. She also became a certified yoga
instructor and health coach.
Sharp started an Instagram account
to catalogue her journey, because friendson her personal account complained that
she was posting too many food photos.
She wanted a career in health, but had
no idea that Instagram and social media
would be key to her success. “My account
grew really quickly,”
she says. In January
2013, she had 10,000
followers and by May,
100,000 followers.
Sharp posted headless
body shots, sharing
the evolution of her
relationship with food
and her body. “You eat
good food, you feel
good,” she says. “You
don’t eat good food,
you don’t feel good. It was like a magical
concept for me that I didn't understand
prior to that. You can change what you eat
and in one day you feel a difference.” She
will forever be grateful for the kindness and
compassion shown to her by the Instagram
community, including friends she met
online who she remains in touch with today.HAPPY EQUALS
HEALTHY
“I wanted to be a
real inÁXencer like
Oprah Winfrey,
not a social Pedia
inÁXencer with a
Pillion Iollowersμ