I walked down the lobby of the Marriott Hotel on the 12th floor to meet a tall woman with a blonde shaved head, dressed in all black. The night before she had just attended her engagement party thrown by her Real CatWalk family. The room was quiet but her warm and loving energy filled the air. The next few hours I would have never expected to find a new meaning to the phrase “body positivity.”
Svetlana Chernienko, a Model, Actress, Domestic Abuse survivor, and Mental Health Advocate, took some time to share her truths with me on a Sunday afternoon, in efforts to help others heal. Svetlana was born to a Russian mother and a Nigerian father in 1978. During her childhood, she had various role models from whom she drew strength. For instance, her grandmother was a concentration camp survivor. Her father served as a member of the United States Military and even received a Purple Heart for his service. After his death in September 2014, President Barack Obama honored him by personally sending a letter to Svetlana, showing his gratitude for her father’s service. Yet out of everyone in her family, Svetlana describes her mother as her rock. Though her mother was born in Canada, she was raised in the Soviet Union and experienced many injustices during the Cold War era, but she had fought her way out. She liberated herself from these horrors by writing a letter to the then Prime Minister of Canada seeking refuge. Svetlana reflects, “...I get my fighting spirit from her.”
However, Svetlana also had her own painful experiences and challenges in which she had to show great strength and perseverance. During our time together, she shared an experience she had never shared with anyone before. “I am talking about it because I know it is a part of my story, and it is a part of my truth and this might be able to help someone with trauma.” Svetlana was also Sexual Assualt survivor but shied away from sharing this to the public. Despite the fact that they were super close, Svetlana had even kept this experience from her mother for many years. When Svetlana was growing up in Côté Neige, a neighborhood in Montreal, she was on the basketball, dance, track, and volleyball team. She was considered more of a tomboy and hung out with mostly guys. One afternoon she forgot her keys at one of her guy friend’s house and was told to pick it up by her friend who was dating one of the guys. As soon as Svetlana walked in, she had a gut feeling she had stepped into a bad situation . She realized that she had been lured into a trap. “These three guys beat the shit out of me and raped me. I was beyond distraught. One of them took, I don’t know what they took- the doctor was trying to figure it out, but he put something that cut me (…) it could have been a knife and he put it inside of me and cut me and that’s where I got scar tissue in my uterus, where I was told I wasn’t going to be able to have children.” Svetlana recalls painfully. Svetlana is now a mother of four and is beyond grateful for her family.
Follow Svetlana at IG: @therealsvetlana.