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Like many girls her age, 14-year-old Charlotte Honey faced a constant battle with anxiety over her body image.
A year ago she was left feeling suicidal when her weight topped 14-stone.
But in the space of 12 months she’s swapped worrying about weight to lifting it instead.
The teenager said: “I was in a really dark place with my weight. I was suicidal.
“You get to a point where you just don’t like yourself any more.”
It was then Charlotte’s mum suggested she join her at the gym.
Sam Honey said: “It was horrible, I was really worried about her. “She didn’t want to go to school, every day was a battle getting her out of bed. Charlotte would have anxiety over speaking to someone in a shop.”
Since making that dreaded first trip to the gym, Charlotte has lost four stone and took part in her first power lifting competition on Sunday.
“If I’m angry at school I will go to the gym and work it out..." Charlotte Honey
She said: “At first it was really hard to get myself down to the gym because my confidence just wasn’t there.
“I wanted to be there but I’d have panic attacks. It was a battle between me and anxiety.
“We went to a strength gym, just to have a look. I really quickly settled in and saw it was like a family.
“One lady was determined to get me into competition. I did my first one on Sunday and I loved it.
“The oldest woman there was 40 years older than me and I managed to beat her.”
With a lack of competition from girls her age, Charlotte, now 14, had to compete against women of all ages, with the next youngest competitor aged 24.
Sunday’s competition at Evolution Strength and Fitness in Aylesford saw her flip 175kg tyres and pull an eight-tonne truck for 10metres.
Sam, who lives with Charlotte in Farleigh Court, said: “I thought she’d do cardio, lift some small weights.
“The next thing I know she’s flipping 175kg tyres and pulling eight-tonne trucks. She’s incredible, I can’t even flip 110kg.”
Charlotte added: “I did my own personal best in the log press, I haven’t got very strong shoulders but I managed to lift 37kg.
“The best part was my little brother was there. He’s four-years-old and that’s the first time he’s seen me lifting.
“He told me I was like a superhero.”
Charlotte comes from a fit family, her uncle is a body builder and so is her grandad.
With fellow gym members at Evolution making up more of her weight-lifting family, there’s plenty of support at hand.
The Maplesden Noakes student said: “I’m the only teenage girl there so I have to get used to it. I get along with all the big, body building men.
“If I’m angry at school I will go to the gym and work it out. The other people there will ask if I’m okay and are there to talk to if I’m having a bad day.
“All my friends are really supportive too. People I wouldn’t normally talk to at school just come up and speak to me because they find it interesting.
“I’m 10 times more confident than I was.
“I’ve opened an Instagram page. I put my bad times and my good times out there.
“People will put out what they want you to see, but they don’t put out what happens behind that.
“Now she’s so much more confident, I don’t go to bed every night worrying about her..." Sam Honey
“There’s a lot of other people who are in the place I was. I want to show them it does get better.”
Sam added: “Now she’s so much more confident, I don’t go to bed every night worrying about her.
“Some people on social media are negative. They say ‘how can you let your daughter do this?’
“You can either sink or swim, I needed to get Charlotte into something. She found something she loved.
“A lot of girls struggle with eating because they want to be super slim, but Charlotte has to eat as part of her training. This also helps turn that eating problem around.
“There are so many teenagers who are in the position that Charlotte was, we want to help them turn that around.”
