“I needed to be healthy and mentally well for my kids”

Central Coast mum Kimmi Leahy is crazy about pole dancing and says it has helped her overcome hang-ups about her body.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Kimmy said that the sport makes her feel ‘powerful and free.’

She shares her routines regularly on her Instagram page.

“I have realised all sizes can be sexy,” she shares. “Anyone can twerk around that pole, no matter what your size.”

When she first started pole dancing after the birth of her first child in 2010, she worried about being the ‘fat one’ in the class.

Eight years on, she is happy and confident and shrugs off nasty comments from trolls on her page.

“When I first got the comments I would feel really angry, but now I don't pay attention, it's a waste of time.

“I just delete them. The pole is for everyone and it's for no one to say what type of body type should be doing it.”

Kimmi adds that her husband has been hugely supportive. In her late teens and early twenties she had developed “abnormal eating patterns” but realised that she needed to change.

“I really thought about my life and how I needed to be healthy and mentally well for my kids,” she says.

Her husband encouraged her to start pole dancing and the rest is history. After just one class, she was hooked and says it was the most fun she had ever felt doing sport.

“I want to show that plus size pole dancing can be done and anyone who is bigger and wants to give it a go should go for it.

“It makes you feel amazing, empowered and so confident.”