Confidence 'not a feeling, it's an action': Sarah Nicole Landry says on podcast

The Canadian influencer appeared on TV personality Jessi Cruickshank's newest podcast episode.

Sarah Nicole Landry is opening up about her live-saving medication. (Instagram/@thebirdspapaya)
Influencer Sarah Nicole Landry dazzled in the newest episode of Jessi Cruickshank's podcast "Phone a Friend." (Instagram/@thebirdspapaya)

For Sarah Nicole Landry, confidence is not a feeling — it's an action.

The Canadian influencer appeared on the newest episode of "Phone a Friend," a podcast series hosted by television personality Jessi Cruickshank, in which the two talked confidence, self-care and being influencers.

Known online as The Birds Papaya, Landry became a content creator about 15 years ago with a blog before moving over to Instagram. She now has 2.2 million followers on the platform, but as she said in the podcast, it started at her "rock bottom."

Landry told Cruickshank years went by as she watched people be "so perfect" on social media, before realizing that was just one piece of their lives.

"When I was blogging... It was never about us, and when Instagram became a thing suddenly the cameras were turned onto us."

About six or seven years into creating content, Landry, after getting married at 19 and having two kids at the time, recalled going through a journey to change her appearance, losing 100 pounds.

"Instagram loved me for it. I got this big following," she said.

But, at the same time she was going through a divorce and living at her parents house, and "no one knew anything." Landry recalled getting non-stop compliments on her weight loss.

"I realized nobody is seeing anything but what I looked like, because that's what I've made my thing... Lightbulb moment — I need to change my life. I need to change the way I'm showing up online."

In the "Love Your Body-ody-ody with The Birds Papaya" episode, Landry recalled the first time she showed "an inch of my stretch marks on my stomach" on Instagram.

"There was so many people who had stomachs like mine... That's when everything changed for me."

Confidence and cringing

Cruickshank said she was left in awe when she saw Landry on a Disney cruise influencer event last summer.

“The one time I saw you in your bikini, I was truly starstruck by your body,” Cruickshank said, acknowledging it’s "an insane thing to tell anyone," through a laugh.

Landry, who called Cruickshank one of her "favourite people" was happy to hear that.

“I never grew up seeing anybody even show stretch marks or cellulite… I think everyone just assumes that I’m uber-confident,” she responded.

“I probably wasn’t feeling confident but I did the confident thing, which is what confidence is; it’s not a feeling, it’s an action."

The two also joked about Landry being a "full blown Disney adult," much like fellow celebrities Ryan Gosling and Gigi Hadid.

On the topic of shamelessness, Cruickshank confessed in her podcast she’s still embarrassed to call herself an influencer.

“You are like the OG blogger, one of the original influencers… You’re hugely successful at it. Have you found a way to just embrace it?,” Cruickshank asked her guest.

“No, I still cringe,” Landry responded candidly, “I think I cringe at what it means to people in their heads.”

But, the mom of three said it’s common for any type of work championed by women to be minimized and mocked.

“It literally was mostly stay-at-home moms, there was a lot of women in fashion and people who literally created an industry out of nothing, and utilized social media as this vehicle. Now, we have influencers and I don’t want it to be mocked or minimized because it’s been mostly women who have led the charge in it.”

Cruickshank applauded her guest, adding Landry “completely reframed” how she thought about the term influencer.

In addition to the confidence-talk, the two star moms also reflected on meeting each other for the first time, meeting a Kardashian and having a promiscuous phase, in the 40-minute segment of the "Phone a Friend" episode.

In an Instagram post, Cruickshank shared a photo with Landry from last summer which she hadn't shared until now "because I hated the way I looked," she penned in the caption.

But, continued that Landry reminded her "how to love the skin" she's in.

The host promoted her new podcast episode, adding "I promise you'll look at yourself, your body, your life, a little differently."

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