FASHION - PHOTOGRAPHY - INTERVIEW

AMARETTO’S WORLD

ON BEING A WOMAN OF COLOUR IN MEDIA, BODY CONFIDENCE AND HER WORK WITH THE ASIAN WOMAN FESTIVAL

INTERVIEW AND IMAGES BY ARHANTIKA REBELLO

In her professional day job, Amrit Matharu aka Amaretto’s World, works for the BBC on BBC Asian Network radio station. As a producer and presenter, she's worked on music documentaries, youth discussion programmes, and talks cultural topics from music to popular culture. In addition to broadcast media, she also has her own own YouTube channel - Amaretto’s World where she vlogs and showcases various parts of her life, and as well as working as a model.

What was the inspiration behind Amaretto’s World?

Firstly the name kind of just happened. I got the nickname at uni because I had a very big group of non-Asian friends for a long time - having grown up in a white area, I didn’t really have any Desi connection to my culture or friends outside of my family or extended family members. It’s a very different story now and being at uni helped me discover my own interpretation of culture and what that means to me. But someone couldn’t pronounce my name, so I broke it down into syllables - Am-er-it - and they said it sounded like Amaretto and the name stuck ever since. So back when blogging had really started and became a thing in the early days, around 2010/2011, I was really interested in it. 

I think we’re the digital generation that kicked all of this off to be honest, some of the big YouTuber’s like Lilly Singh, and Jus Reign, are a similar age to me and I grew up watching these people who had inspired what me and a lot of my peers do! My blog was a space where I was talking about my culture and had a space to share my thoughts because it was a way of connecting and being a part of my culture. I might not have always been exposed to it physically because of where I lived and the friends I had, but online I could be.  I’ve always been into fashion as well, so it was a place where I could show off my photography, and designs.

Blogging for me was like a way of documenting it and expressing why it was important to me. Years later, the work I invested in worked towards becoming my brand. Often back in the day, people didn’t understand what I was doing, or thought I was always tapping away at my phone or taking pics. Now it’s become the norm and everyone’s doing it but back then I think there was a lack of understanding in how much goes into running a successful blog. It taught me so much around branding, marketing and selling yourself because effectively you become your own company and are doing it all by yourself.

What has the journey been like so far? 

I feel so lucky to be actually working in these fields that I care about. Sounds cliche, but I honestly am living my dream. I care so deeply about what I do - I’m not in it for the fame or money (because that doesn’t exist LOL, I’m still very much having to work for all of that still). Although I am very happy to be doing what I do and call it my dream, that doesn’t mean it’s been easy. I come from a small town and haven’t always had access to people and the industry so I’ve had to work extra hard to be relevant and make a name for myself. I have met some brilliant people and colleagues who have become good friends and supportive to me, but this industry isn’t always friendly. I try to always stay true to myself, and what I care about and stand for. That way I know my intentions are true even if other people aren't. 

How has being a woman of colour influenced this journey?

I am proud to be a woman of colour in my industry, working for an Asian radio station and in the media and especially as a plus size model. I think representation is so important. I grew up in a small town, a small white town where I’d hardly see any of my culture reflected. And even less on TV. So certain people who were really prominent like Konnie Huq was someone who I did see and resonate with. Seeing someone that looks like you, makes you feel proud and inspire you to aim high! As well as colour, I also think representation of different bodies and shapes and sizes is important. It’s one thing to see someone the same race or culture as you on TV and magazines, but as a curvy woman I’ve always felt an extra layer of not seeing myself through my size. I’d like to think I’m quite strong and not really let that affect my confidence or how I see myself… But I’d be lying if I said it’s never come to mind or ever played a part. Because I am confident, I hope that I can inspire other women and my community, and it makes me want to strive harder for my people!

Tell me a bit about what it’s been like to be involved in plus size fashion and your overall body positivity message!

I grew up constantly being taught within my culture and wider magazines and beauty industry that being thin equals being pretty. Naturally I am a curvy woman, so as I was becoming more curvy and noticing I don’t look like the women in the magazines and a lot of my white school peers, I think I internalised the feelings about my body and the way I see myself. Because of my Asian culture, I never spoke about those feelings or felt like it was important enough to discuss. And quite frankly talking about your weight or stretch marks is embarrassing. I feel like reflecting the true image of myself online is important. 

We need to understand our bodies and relationships with them. It took me a long time to be comfortable with myself and that is always going to be a working progress. For example as a teenager I would never wear sleeveless tops because of my stretch marks on my arms - I was so in fear of being made fun of because I thought it looked disgusting. And I later realised why I thought that, because I’d never seen anyone my age with them. But in fact as I grew up and started talking about it, it was a common issue amongst so many people and I felt like it wasn’t just me that felt that way. So for me the body positivity message is about opening up these conversations and including people rather than excluding them. 

Apart from lighting and orientation I don’t really edit my images and I think showing real skin and blemishes, is important for my followers to see. We are all human at the end of the day. I also love posting expectation VS reality pics too, it’s a bit of fun and we shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously where it becomes dangerous and perfecting every little thing affects our mental health.

How did you get involved with the Asian Woman Festival? 

I pride myself in having a lot of connections to the industry, not in a popularity type of way but linked to the things I care about and support to my peers in the industry and culture. The founder of AWF is my good friend and when she told me she was launching it, I 100% could resonate with her vision and wanted to support her. She also supports what I represent and it’s likeminded-ness like that which we need to see. Women supporting women and raising them up together. It’s important for women, especially women of colour to rise in this way and give each other these opportunities rather than create competition. There’s already so much competition out there, why make it harder for ourselves? We should learn to show more unity for our race and gender as a whole and that way we all rise. The talk I gave at AWF last year was about social media and body positivity and I spoke about many of the things mentioned above. This year it unfortunately had to be postponed because of the COVID-19 situation. However my involvement was more than just representing my brand at the festival - I am now actually on the festival committee. My role is the stage and content producer so I curated the stage talks, working closely with panellists from across social media and various fields to highlight issues within the South Asian culture. As I do this role professionally, I feel strongly about the cause for example mental health, body image and I was even going to be running a sex and relationships workshop.  This should all still be going ahead with a new date soon - watch this space!

Silk scarves and hair ties by @kirandeepbassan

Jewellery by @mrsjewelsx