It is with pleasure that we introduce to you, Crew member, Jacqui. Jacqui is 58 and calls Melbourne home. Her and her husband are empty nesters and proud parents of two daughters and a son who are all living their own lives and doing very well.
Jacqui says "2018 has been a HUGE year of change for me. In March this year I walked out of my job of 18 years for no other reason except that I was over it. Not planned, not discussed, no thoughts, I just up and said to my colleagues "I'm going home" and I did and never went back. I had no idea I was going to do this when I went to work as usual that morning. Lucky my husband is supportive.
Jacqui then went on to complete a personal styling course at the Australian Style Institute which she loved and started an Instagram page @newstylechapters which she can proudly say that she has gained over 1000+ followers in just a few months. Through Instagram she discovered the #cossieconfidence Crew search and told her husband that she really wanted to do it. It is very important to Jacqui that this message is out there. So she did, and her she is!
Since then, Jacqui has taken on a new role at in retail at Taking Shape. She has never worked retail before and had no idea how much her feet would hurt but she just loves meeting all the different types of women who come to shop. She says "some are just so grateful for your help. I do personal styling sessions at work one on one and I change lives doing so. There are so many unhappy and lonely women out there who shop just for company.
In 2012, Jacqui almost died of a pulmonary embolism due to kidney stone surgery. The doctors told her that if she had not gone back to the hospital when she did, that she would have been dead by Sunday morning. This was very confronting for her, as was the news in 2015, that her husband had colon cancer. Thankfully, after major surgery, he is now fine.
So, now it is her time! Jacqui and her husband travel the world and live a big, full life. After a European trip in 2016 to attend their daughter's wedding in Positano, Italy the floodgates of travel opened. They then went on a cruise around Italy, Greek Islands and Turkey. Jacqui says "this is where I discovered my #cossieconfidence.
I went to the pool on the ship on the first day in my neck to knee black. Long black boardies and a black top over some cute Cossies. I must have looked like a whale.
Everyone on the ship was free and wearing skimpy bathers and some were older and bigger than me. I forced myself to take off the top and then a few hours later the boardies came off too. It felt so liberating to be free of all that boring black. I loved it.
Positano was hot. So I went to the beach with my girlfriend who is a skinny ex model and I didn't wear my black!. She loved that I was so confident to wear my bathers to the beach and didn't care what others thought.
Little did she know I was scared sh*tless! We hired a boat for a couple of hours and I wore my bathers. The boat driver said I was beautiful. My friend Marie loved that. Italian men .... ahh."
Jacqui feels that in Europe, it is easier to be open on the beach as everyone is so relaxed. She doesn't feel it is the same in Australia and would love to change that. She says we have so many beautiful beaches and we need to enjoy them. But change is happening. "I wore the same tankini bathers for more than ten/fifteen years until they were threadbare because it was really hard to get swimsuits to fit me at a size 20." Now there are so many choices. I think I now have at least 20 pairs of bathers in my drawer of varying sizes and colours. I love them all and I still want more. My husband and I intend to travel a lot more in the future and do more cruises, so I can wear all my bathers!"
Jacqui is coming to Kingscliff for the shoot in October and we can't wait to meet her. Look out for Jacqui this summer. Her passion to help other women to get into their bathers is infectious!