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Munich / Berlin (dpa) - Influencers are people who become brands with their pictures and stories on the Internet.
The story of Sophia Thiel (26) goes like this: Years ago, she lost 30 kilos, she transformed from a chubby teenager to a bodybuilder with a six-pack.
She becomes a fitness model and has more and more fans. Her name sells, there are guidebooks, sportswear, cosmetics and a magazine. Her videos are clicked millions of times on Youtube, at the FIBO fitness fair in Cologne she is surrounded like Jürgen Drews on Mallorca. TV viewers know the blonde Bavarian as a coach from “The Biggest Loser” or “Galileo”.
200 sports bras in the closet, training four hours a day and weighing the food down to the gram: she lives in the world of fitness ultras.
It's a lot of drag.
In addition: a breakup, a rebellious body, shitstorms on the net, a flood of appointments, a rejected photo production, a dispute with the family and the closure of her beloved Munich fitness studio Sophia Thiel two years ago it all became too much.
“I just didn't know what to do with me,” she says today.
She felt lost and asked herself: "Who do I really want to be?"
She pulls the rip cord and disappears from the scene.
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Now she is back with a book and new messages.
In “Come back stronger” (ZS Verlag) she tells of successes, self-doubt, the search for confirmation, the separation from her boyfriend and psychological problems.
And also from embarrassing moments, for example when the push-up insert falls out of her bra during a photo shoot.
There is a lot of pressure involved when you turn your life into internet content and every pound of your body is examined publicly.
That becomes clear in the book.
Today Thiel says: Counting calories, weighing food or diet tips, she wouldn't do that anymore, especially because of the young fans.
"Because there is a little more to life than having the perfect body."
Sophia Thiel stands by the fact that she has done therapy.
She struggled with binge eating.
Thiel says she knows many young women and girls, especially in the fitness scene, who suffered from an eating disorder or were still in the middle of it or just slipped into it.
She wants to educate so that they don't go through the same thing as her.
She wants to continue doing weight training as a hobby, but no more competitions.
"I think it's great when my book encourages self-reflection that people question their own behavior, their social media consumption and how they deal with themselves."
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During her break, she temporarily deleted the social media apps from her phone.
"It was easier for me than I thought."
She rediscovered normal life and fell in love again.
She is now interested in mental issues.
In her new videos, she introduces her boyfriend Raphael to her fans or goes to the hairdresser.
The hair is now a little shorter and darker, the curves a little rounder than in the days of bodybuilders.
As far as ideals of beauty are concerned: She thinks it is very nice to see the beauty in human bodies that are not perfect.
Less filters.
She recognizes when people cheat on photos: "If you deal a little with the human anatomy, you can see it very clearly: Okay, you have no more organs, your arms are so kinked."
Once she has children of her own, it is best for them to grow up in nature, not in a big city.
Sophia Thiel imagines it this way: She would send the children out into the forest so that they can really play in the dirt.
They should only get to know cell phones and social media late.
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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210507-99-503449 / 3
Farewell video before the break
Video "My way into a new life"
Sophia Thiel on Youtube