A plus sized woman who is obsessed with everything pink and girly says anyone can be a Barbie – and her husband loves her bigger body. <br /><br />Alyssa Marie Anderson, 31, had felt like an “outcast” before she found the self-confidence embrace her curves and says "I know I'm fat".<br /><br />Now she loves everything pink – filling her wardrobe with pastel tones, as well as decking her house in pink and green furniture.<br /><br />She has a collection of 19 vintage Barbie dolls and loves dying her hair pastel colours.<br /><br />Alyssa, who wears a size UK 20, used to hide in black and dark clothes but has now found the confidence to dress in colourful and bold outfits.<br /><br />Alyssa, a professional make-up artist, from Long beach, California, said: “For me being a plus sized girl, Barbie was that beacon of beauty.<br /><br />“Everyone wanted to be just like Barbie.<br /><br />“I’m my own version of Barbie.<br /><br />“Pink is the number one colour for me. My number one love.<br /><br />“I have always loved being super girly and feminine.<br /><br />“I still have a brain, I’m successful – I just look good doing it.”<br /><br />Alyssa used to hide away in dark clothing before her husband Shay, 35, a HVAC technician, helped her find self-love.<br /><br />She said: “I had put pressure on myself to look good for him.<br /><br />"I spent years of trying to make myself into an ideal version.<br /><br />“It never occurred to me that he loved what I looked like already.<br /><br />“One day I said ‘why me?’<br /><br />“He said I’m 100 per cent the body type he’s always known he wanted.<br /><br />“Some people like bigger bodies.”<br /><br />Now Alyssa “loves” who she is and what she sees in the mirror and can embrace her love of colour and girly things.<br /><br />Alyssa said: “As a plus sized person I was told not to wear colours, or be bold.<br /><br />“I always loved colour. I existed in a world where I wore so many boring clothes.<br /><br />“Now I wear what I want.<br /><br />“I challenge myself to wear the things I wouldn’t have worn 10 years ago.<br /><br />“I get so many compliments now that I have embraced who I am.”<br /><br />She loves everything Barbie but also has an eclectic wardrobe and loves to wear gothic clothes.<br /><br />She said: “I love being girly and I love being a badass.<br /><br />“I’m a plus-sized Barbie.”<br /><br />Alyssa said she isn’t affected by strangers comments about her weight - despite people telling her to "hit the gym" and saying she is "overweight" and "not healthy".<br /><br />She said: “I felt like an outcast for the way I looked.<br /><br />"It helped with my wit.<br /><br />"Strangers can’t affect my confidence.<br /><br />“I know I’m fat.<br /><br />“You’re not offending me by calling me what I see myself as.”<br /><br />Alyssa wants others to find the self-confidence like she has with who they are and their body.<br /><br />She said: “It’s never too late to love yourself.<br /><br />"Everyone can be Barbie."
