FREELEE THE BANANA GIRL MY MOST CONTROVERSIAL MOMENT YET
Think about how much money you spend on beauty products and makeup.
What about the time spent running to hair appointments or shaving your legs? It was a life the woman Australia once knew as Freelee the Banana Girl was all too familiar with.
But last year the 38-year-old from Queensland says she decided it was time to give it all up. “I had reached my beauty duty threshold,” she tells New Idea. “My closets were full of pretty stuff that I purchased out of insecurity and boredom.”
The vegan, who shot into the media spotlight in 2014 with her 51 Bananas a Day diet, was tired of a life that involved fake tanning, hair dyeing, uncomfortable fashion, facial injections and mountains of beauty products. She says it didn’t make her happy.
“I wanted more tanned, tighter skin, no freckles, whiter, straighter teeth,” she sighs. “I also had an obsession with my legs. I have spent most of my life hiding them beneath pants until now. I felt they were flabby and shapeless and that I had kankles. [It’s] all thanks to the beauty brainwashing since birth.”
But instead of going cold turkey she went one step further. She says she decided to move away from the society she felt was causing all the negativity and into a cabin in the South American jungle.
“I’ve always been the rebellious type,” she admits. “I had enough of the fake city vibes where making money was more important than being happy and healthy. I was bored of trying to fit in with the mainstream herd.”
She says her family were “nervous” but she and her partner, Robin, left in February 2018 with savings and a small income from Freelee’s Youtube video channel. And, according to Freelee, what was originally a living off-grid experiment developed into a new way of life.
“I was lying in the sun thinking about the daily beauty grind when I thought, ‘I’m not going to be bullied into beauty anymore’,” she tells New Idea. “And that was it. No more face painting or removing my body hair. No more painful fashion. I decided it was time to actually embrace ME for once. All of me. Including my body hair.”
She admits her new way of living comes with its fair share of challenges. “I spent almost three weeks in agony after taking a photo bare-assed leaning against a poison ivy-type tree which resulted in painful itchy wounds,” she remembers. “It’s been tough, but I love it.”
And now she says she’s happier than ever.
“I feel content. I accept who I am and what I look like. I now see my body more for how it functions rather than how hot or sexy it looks.”
While Freelee says most people have been supportive, she admits there have been an army of detractors questioning
“I’VE ALWAYS BEEN THE REBELLIOUS TYPE ... I WAS BORED OF TRYING TO FIT INTO THE MAINSTREAM HERD”
whether all is quite as it seems.
“They think I’m living in a mansion somewhere, feet up getting manicures and served tropical fruit platters all day by trained monkeys,” she laughs.
“Sometimes I get annoyed, but mostly I use it as an opportunity to put them in their place.”
This year Freelee has also been busy writing a book, My Naked Lunchbox, which she describes as “the most controversial cookbook you’ll ever read”.
“It’s a book for the rebellious ones, women who are sick and tired of being bullied into ‘beauty duty’ and told they were born ugly,” she tells New Idea.