Emily Skye: The model and trainer dominating Facebook with holistic approach to fitness

Skye speaks candidly about overcoming depression on her accounts

Emily Skye (Instagram)

Social media feeds are overrun with didactic accounts belonging to influencers who apparently dedicate every aspect of their life to fitness and health.

Amid a growing obsession with wellness and clean eating, trainers are now using platforms such as Instagram and Facebook to launch their own fitness empires. But with so much competition in such a saturated market, actually commanding attention from a sizeable audience is no mean feat.

Emily Skye is one of a handful of people to make a huge impression on social media, amassing over eight million followers on Facebook. As a fitness model and personal trainer, Skye has developed a personal brand based on self-improvement, the power of aspiration and transforming pessimism into optimism. Her Facebook account goes into great detail about her personal metamorphosis from what she calls the “skinny, insecure depressed girl” to the “fit, happy and confident” woman through her holistic approach to fitness, a change her followers hope to emulate.

Over 200,000 subscribers pay $49.95 and upwards for her F.I.T programmes.

Who is she?

Skye, 31, is from Glenning Valley on the New South Wales Central Coast, Australia. She began modelling at the age of 15 and launched her fitness career after making it to the final five of Oxygen magazine’s modelling competition in 2010.

Skye says she struggled with depression for much of her teenage years after her parents split. Unlike other trainers such as Kayla Itsine who focus their appeal on the 'before and after' photos of those following their programmes, she uses personal accounts of how she ultimately found happiness through health and fitness to motivate others.

Overcoming depression to become body positive

Skye blogs about maintaining a positive attitude, leaning on her own experiences of depression to advise others on how to become more confident.

"I can tell you, it's horrible being stuck in that dark hole of negativity," she writes. "I have been in this place many times before […]. The difference with me now is I know how to stop myself, I know how to pull myself back out of that hole... because I definitely don't want to be there again. When you learn to become a more positive person then you attract more positivity in and it snowballs to a happier life from there."

She also discusses her own battles with self-belief and self-worth to explain how her fitness career has improved both.

“All through my childhood up until my mid-20s I have been insecure with who I was. I had no self-belief and was depressed. I started modelling [because] it was something that I enjoyed but I just never thought I was good enough for any jobs. I wouldn't put myself forward for jobs and if I did I didn't expect to get them. If I was lucky enough to get a job I'd make excuses as to why they picked me. I could never just be happy that I got it and believe that I deserved it. I was a pessimist, always negative and always putting myself down.

"My active lifestyle is not only about my body and being fit, it's just as much about my mind. I feel set free from the person I was previously. I was no longer preventing myself from living the best life possible.

"I feel like a completely different person now! I am healthy, strong mentally and physically, I'm confident, I have self-belief, I'm truly happy and I love myself for who I am."

Where have I seen her before?

Skye has 8.3 million Facebook followers, 1.3 million Instagram followers and 43,000 YouTube subscribers. She has also appeared on the covers of Muscle and Fitness, Oxygen, Women's Health and Fitness and Shape Magazine.