But it's been a long journey to get here. I wasn't raised with a lot of the support and love that I find all women should be raised with, to love themselves, so it was harder for me. But I definitely had outside role models who were incredibly helpful. I learned a lot of things on my own, and I took care of myself. I worked on myself in therapy and out of therapy. I worked to make myself feel comfortable in my own skin.

Throughout those years, I learned that the most important relationship I had was with myself; I wouldn't be happy until I loved myself. And I'm not at the level I would like to be yet — that I'm perfectly confident and I have no self-esteem issues — because, let's be real, everyone has self-esteem issues. But I am in a much better place than I used to be, and I'm super-happy about that and proud of myself for it.

This Dove body-positivity campaign is one of the most amazing campaigns I've seen. I know I wasn't alone in [experiencing] cyberbullying, but when you're going through it by yourself, it can be incredibly isolating. It's really nice to hear and understand other women's stories. And it's nice for me because I have nieces who are younger than me [whom] I can start to mentor now, so they don't have to go through the same thing I went through. To receive that positivity from other women who tell me I've made a difference for them — it does so much to heal the wounds I incurred when I was younger. It's changed me and helped me a lot.

To learn more about Ariel's involvement in the Dove #SpeakBeautiful campaign, check out her video below.