By Jules Lavallee
Katya Karlova began her career as a successful Corporate VP in the talent and recruitment space in London. Katya had struggled with mental health issues throughout her adult life. After years of the “hustle culture” she began to feel unfulfilled. A pivotal moment came during COVID when Katya began to self-reflect and she soon realized the root of her anxiety and depression was due to years and years of struggling with body image. During COVID working from home with its autonomy was very liberating. This was the catalyst for Katya to take the time to embrace self-love and empowerment, by creating boudoir photography. She was free from the grind from the “hustle culture” and she could now be her true self, free and content.
Today, Katya is a well-known American curvy model, social media influencer, content creator, and vocal mental health advocate. Now based in Los Angeles, she was born in Chisinau, in the Republic of Moldova, before emigrating to the United States as a child. Katya attended UCLA, graduating early to accept a scholarship from the University College London where she completed her master’s degree. Katya then built a successful career as a corporate executive before she began modeling to tackle her own body image issues and pursue her lifelong passion.
Growth Begins When You are Outside of Your Comfort Zone
Through modeling, Katya found confidence, empowerment, and most importantly, self-love and healing. As a model and content creator, she specializes in working with lingerie, swimwear, travel, and lifestyle brands. Given her corporate background, she brings a unique set of skills to the table: business acumen, professionalism, a strong work ethic, and a keen grasp of marketing data & analytics. However, it’s her authenticity in showing her fun, playful, and engaging personality that’s been the key to her rapid growth on social media. She has 335K followers on Instagram. Katya shares her journey with the hope that it will encourage others to find the courage to be vulnerable, step outside their comfort zones, and create their unique success stories.
Although some people can see photos of lingerie simply with the male gaze and sexualize it, boudoir photography for Katya is all about self-love, confidence and empowerment. Katya’s mission is to share her story and advocate for mental health in all areas of life.Her philosophy is when you feel good about your body and confident in it, you physically feel better, and you can step out of your comfort zone and reach for the life you want.
Opportunities as an Influencer and Content Creator
For Katya the biggest opportunity was a personal one. She can feel free to exist without self-censor. She has worked with incredibly talented photographers and creatives, and has discovered her own creativity. Katya has many loyal and supportive followers in the Middle East, over 30% are based there. She is looking for opportunities to collaborate with Middle Eastern brands.
Future collaborations
A future dream come true for Katya would be a collaboration with her favorite lingerie brands like Honey Birdettte, Maison Close or a fuller bust friendly brand like PerfectDD.
“Embracing our bodies, sensuality, and sexuality is part of that but it remains a big cultural taboo, which again, is interesting because is not so much of a taboo in other countries. On top of all that, although a lot of progress has been made on the body positivity front for women, there’s still a long way to go, especially for fuller-bust women. Few brands cater to fuller bust figures and yet, a lot of women with fuller busts exist and shop for lingerie and clothes. My brand and business is all about challenging many of these harmful societal norms and stereotypes related to self-love, body confidence, and body positivity.
Facebook:
Link: https://www.facebook.com/katya.b.karlova/
Twitter:
@katya_b_karlova
Link: https://x.com/katya_b_karlova
TikTok:
@katyabkarlova
Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@katyabkarlova
By-Jules Lavallee
