My Name is Liam Halewood and I have recently took part in a programme called Naked Education on channel 4 which airs at 8pm Every Tuesday.

I took part in this groundbreaking show to show myself for the happiest I have ever been in just my underwear and I felt the most confident I have ever felt but it hasn’t always been like that, and by doing this show hopefully helping the youth of today feel confident in their own skin and change themselves because society tells them too.

It has been well documented in many publications that my life got side tracked by Instagram perfection, along with this I also had a dream to become the next big reality star and I went on spending around £20,000 on a lifestyle which involves lots of cosmetic and aesthetic procedures.

Now I know what your thinking “Liam you chose that lifestyle so deal with it” but what I didn’t know is that when I was scouting around on many social media sources, influencers who sold a dream lifestyle were just false advertising to secure brand deals to make themselves millions while not realising they was damaging children’s and young adults mental health.

So as explained above I thought to be the next big reality star, I would need their lifestyle and to be honest I needed to look like them too.

  My journey began in 2018 looking at these Reality Tv stars thinking I need the perfect image they have to set myself up for perfect stardom when in fact I was setting myself up for failure because what I become to realise is that 90% of images on social media from influencers were filtered and altered and that perfection was never achievable.

Realising just after few short years and also spending £20,000 I just knew the path I was on was the wrong one. I even had youth as young as 16 asking me where they could find my aesthetics nurse number. After that I thought what have I become, I am making people as young as 16 feel less confident about themselves that they need cosmetic surgery already and it’s needs to stop.

So after a massive reality check from my Mum in a magazine article and the above, it made me realise that you take your looks to the grave and your legacy on this planet is left by your personality and the way you treat people in this world.

Paid influencers are probably the nicest people in the world but false advertising is against the law and so should filters be when you are selling products via influencing on Social Media, TV and Media outlets. 

So from someone who has been there and worn the T-shirt,  I think I along with the rest of the world we should champion realism, let the youth of today know the real world and celebrate who we are what we have been given and stop hiding behind filters, but if it is filtered then a law should be in place to watermark filtered images.

Let’s take care of each other and the younger generation!!!