From overcoming extraordinary personal challenges to building a career in fitness, modelling and entrepreneurship, Amanda shares the journey behind Weak to Strong and explains why true strength begins long before anyone can see it.
More Than Physical Strength
Strength means different things to different people.
For some, it’s measured in the weights they lift, the challenges they overcome or the goals they achieve. For others, it’s something much less visible: the determination to begin again when life has taken an unexpected turn.
For Amanda, the woman behind Weak to Strong, strength has come to represent both.
Today, Amanda is a fitness enthusiast, model, entrepreneur and coach who has built an online community of more than 400,000 followers. Her photographs celebrate an impressive combination of athleticism, glamour, confidence and femininity, while her business reflects a passion for helping others discover their own potential.
But behind the striking photographs and physical achievements lies a deeply personal journey.
Amanda spent much of her childhood and teenage years dealing with serious health difficulties, including eating disorders and extended periods in hospital. Rebuilding her health, confidence and relationship with her body would take years of determination, patience and self-discovery.
Rather than allowing those experiences to define her future, she gradually created a life built around the things she loves: fitness, creativity, education, modelling and helping others.
Her journey also challenges some familiar assumptions. That physical strength and femininity are somehow incompatible. That confidence is something people either possess or lack. Or that success can be measured simply by appearance, popularity or social media numbers.
For Amanda, the real transformation happened long before the results became visible.
HERA Magazine International caught up with Amanda to explore her extraordinary journey, the meaning behind Weak to Strong, her passion for modelling and fitness, and why she believes our beginnings need not determine our futures.
The HERA Interview
Hera: Amanda, your journey from where you started to where you are today is extraordinary. When you look back at everything you’ve achieved, what makes you feel the proudest?
Amanda: What makes me proudest isn’t my physique, my modelling career or the number of people who follow me. It’s the fact that I managed to build a life that I genuinely love, despite once being in a place where I struggled to imagine having a future at all.
I spent a significant part of my childhood and teenage years fighting battles that most people will hopefully never have to experience. I was severely underweight, struggled with several eating disorders and faced numerous serious health conditions. I spent years in hospitals, and at one point, my family made the decision to escape to Sweden because saving my life had become the priority.
There were moments when simply surviving was an achievement.
Rebuilding myself took approximately a decade. It wasn’t a transformation that happened overnight, and it certainly wasn’t a straight line. I had to learn how to nourish my body, develop a healthy relationship with food, rebuild my strength and, perhaps most importantly, believe that I deserved a different life.
Today, I have built a career in modelling, fitness, entrepreneurship and coaching. I’ve created my own brand, Weak to Strong, developed fitness programmes and educational products, and built a community of people who find inspiration in my journey.
But what makes me proudest is that I didn’t allow my past to become the definition of my future. I created something meaningful from experiences that once nearly destroyed me.
Hera: Your Instagram name, Weak to Strong, tells quite a story in itself. What does being strong mean to you today, beyond physical strength?
Amanda: When I created Weak to Strong, the name represented my personal transformation. Today, it represents something much deeper.
Physical strength is measurable. You can track how much weight you lift, how fast you run or how your body performs. But real strength is much harder to measure.
It’s having the courage to start again when everything you’ve built falls apart. It’s being able to question what you’ve been taught, take responsibility for your decisions and continue moving forward even when nobody is watching.
To me, strength is also knowing when to rest, when to change direction and when to walk away from things that no longer serve you. It isn’t about constantly pushing yourself until you break. I’ve learned that lesson through experience.
I believe true strength comes from the relationship you develop with yourself. When you stop fighting your own body, stop defining your worth through external validation and start treating yourself as someone worth investing in, everything changes.
Weak to Strong is not about becoming someone else. It’s about discovering what you’re capable of when you stop allowing your circumstances to determine your potential.
Hera: Fitness has clearly become an important part of your life. Was there a particular moment when you realised just how much you were capable of achieving?
Amanda: I don’t think there was one particular moment. It was a collection of small victories that eventually became something extraordinary.
When you’ve spent years being physically weak, your relationship with your body is very different. Initially, my goals weren’t about building an impressive physique. They were about becoming healthy, functional and strong enough to enjoy everyday life.
I remember how meaningful the smallest improvements could be. Being able to train a little harder, recover better, gain muscle and feel physically capable again meant more to me than any aesthetic result ever could.
Eventually, I realised that my body was capable of far more than I had once imagined.
Fitness gave me something incredibly valuable: a sense of agency. Instead of constantly feeling that my body was something happening to me, I began to understand how much influence I could have through nutrition, training, recovery, consistency and education.
That experience changed the way I approached everything in life. I became fascinated by human physiology, nutrition, metabolism and the relationship between physical and psychological health.
I still believe the most important transformation happens long before anyone can see it.
Hera: You’ve developed an incredible physique through dedication and hard work. What does your training routine look like these days, and what do you enjoy most about it?
Amanda: My approach to training is built around intelligent programming, progressive overload, consistency and recovery. I’ve spent more than thirteen years learning about strength training, nutrition and physical development, and my philosophy has evolved considerably throughout that time.
I generally prioritise resistance training, with a structured approach to developing each muscle group. I enjoy challenging myself, tracking progress and understanding how small adjustments in training, technique, volume and recovery influence performance.
I also pay close attention to nutrition. Building and maintaining muscle isn’t simply about training hard. It requires sufficient energy, protein, micronutrients, hydration and a nutritional strategy that supports the individual’s physiology and goals.
Recovery is equally important. Sleep, stress management and appropriate training intensity are often underestimated, particularly in a culture that celebrates doing more and more.
What I enjoy most is the process. I love feeling strong, mastering movements, improving my performance and seeing what consistency can achieve over time.
I don’t train because I dislike my body and want to change it. I train because I respect what my body can do, and I want to keep developing that capacity.
Hera: Alongside your fitness achievements, you’ve built a successful modelling career. How did modelling first come into your life, and what do you love most about being in front of the camera?
Amanda: Modelling became a natural extension of my interest in fitness, aesthetics and self-expression.
For a long time, my relationship with my appearance was complicated. After everything I had experienced physically, learning to feel comfortable in my own body was an important part of rebuilding myself.
Modelling gave me an opportunity to explore a completely different side of that journey.
What I love about being in front of the camera is that it allows me to communicate without necessarily saying anything. A photograph can express confidence, vulnerability, femininity, power and personality all at once.
I also love the creative process. Every shoot has its own atmosphere, concept and energy. I enjoy experimenting with different styles, expressions, lighting and ways of presenting myself.
For me, modelling is not simply about looking beautiful. It’s about presence, confidence, character and understanding how to communicate through an image.
Hera: Looking through your photographs, there’s a wonderful mixture of strength, glamour and femininity. How important is it to you to express these different sides of your personality?
Amanda: It’s extremely important because I don’t believe women should feel pressured to fit into one particular definition of femininity.
I can love lifting heavy weights, building muscle and challenging myself physically while also enjoying glamour, fashion, beauty and expressing my sensual side.
Those things aren’t contradictory.
I think there’s a misconception that being strong means becoming less feminine, or that being feminine means being less powerful. I’ve never understood why we need to choose.
I enjoy the contrasts. I can be disciplined and ambitious, but also playful. I can be athletic and glamorous. I can be independent while still appreciating softness and vulnerability.
The most beautiful thing about confidence is that it allows you to stop asking permission to be different versions of yourself.
I want my photographs and my work to reflect that freedom. I don’t want to be placed inside a box, and I don’t believe anyone else should be either.
Amanda: The most rewarding part is knowing that something I’ve experienced can help someone else see possibilities in their own life.
Social media can sometimes become very superficial. It’s easy to focus on numbers, appearance, engagement and algorithms. But behind every follower is a real person with their own experiences, insecurities, ambitions and challenges.
I’ve received messages from people who have struggled with their health, body image, confidence, fitness or difficult periods in their lives. Some have told me that discovering my story made them feel less alone. Others have said that my content motivated them to start training, take better care of themselves or reconsider what they thought was possible.
Those conversations mean far more to me than numbers.
I’ve also built Weak to Strong into something beyond an Instagram account. Through my coaching, fitness app, educational programmes, ebooks and clothing brand, I want to create tools that help people take a more active role in their own development.
My goal isn’t to make people dependent on me for motivation. It’s to give them the knowledge, structure and confidence to eventually become their own strongest support system.
Hera: You’ve undoubtedly inspired people who are facing challenges of their own. What would you say to someone who has lost confidence in themselves or feels that their ambitions are beyond their reach?
Amanda: First, stop comparing your current circumstances with somebody else’s results. You have no idea what happened behind the scenes, what advantages they had, what challenges they faced or how long their journey took.
Secondly, stop waiting until you feel completely ready.
Confidence doesn’t always come before action. Very often, confidence is the result of taking action, keeping promises to yourself and gradually proving that you are capable of more than you believed.
Start with something manageable. Build one healthy habit. Learn one new skill. Take one step towards the life you want. Then repeat.
You don’t need to transform your entire life in a week. You need to create a direction and become consistent enough to follow it.
I also want people to understand that struggling doesn’t mean they’re failing. Sometimes life requires you to rebuild, reassess and take a different route. There is no shame in that.
I’ve been at a point where my circumstances looked nothing like the life I have today. If I had judged my entire future based on those years, I would never have imagined what was possible.
Your current situation is a chapter, not necessarily the conclusion.
And please remember that asking for help is not weakness. You don’t have to fight every battle alone.
Hera: Looking ahead, are there any particular ambitions you’d still love to fulfil, whether in fitness, modelling, business or something completely different?
Amanda: I have a lot of ambitions, and I don’t think I’ll ever be someone who stops being curious about what is possible.
I want to continue developing Weak to Strong into an internationally recognised brand that represents more than fitness. I see enormous potential in combining education, coaching, physical performance, nutrition and personal development into one comprehensive platform.
My mission is to help and empower as many people as possible to transform their health and their lives. Whether you’re struggling with autoimmune diseases, chronic illness, being overweight or underweight, anxiety, poor body image, hormonal imbalances, gut issues or simply feeling disconnected from your body, I’m here to help. Whether your goal is to improve your health, restore balance, support your gut and hormones, or take a more holistic and natural approach to your wellbeing, I want to help you understand your body, find the right tools and build a healthier, stronger version of yourself. No matter where you’re starting from, your health matters, your story matters, and you deserve to feel your best.
I want to expand my brand, develop more advanced educational programmes and reach people in more countries. I also want to continue growing my modelling career, working with exciting brands, photographers and creative teams, and exploring opportunities that challenge me artistically.
Education is another passion of mine. The human body is an extraordinary and incredibly complex system, and I believe we have only scratched the surface of understanding its full potential. I’m fascinated by physiology, biology, biohacking, longevity, emerging technologies and the role artificial intelligence can play in advancing our understanding of human health, performance and wellbeing. I want to keep learning, questioning, exploring and staying at the forefront of scientific developments because knowledge is one of the most powerful tools we have to improve human health and quality of life.
Ultimately, I want to build something that outlives a social media profile. Something with substance, credibility and a genuine positive impact.
Success, to me, isn’t simply about becoming more visible. It’s about creating something valuable enough that it continues to make a difference.
Hera: Finally, Amanda, if you could look five years into the future, what would you most like your life to look like, and what would make you happiest?
Amanda; Five years from now, I hope to have built a life that combines freedom, purpose, health, meaningful relationships and the opportunity to keep creating.
I’d love to see Weak to Strong become a globally established brand, with an international community, a successful digital platform, products and educational programmes that genuinely help people improve their lives.
I’d also love to continue travelling, modelling, learning and experiencing new things. I never want to lose that curiosity or ambition.
But beyond professional achievements, what would make me happiest is having a healthy, peaceful and fulfilling life. Being surrounded by people I love, having the freedom to choose how I spend my time and waking up excited about what I’m creating.
I’ve learned that you can spend years chasing a particular destination and forget to appreciate the life you’re living along the way.
Today, I value the journey much more.
If there’s one thing my life has taught me, it’s that your beginning doesn’t have to determine your ending. You can rebuild, reinvent yourself and create something you never thought possible.
And I think that’s what Weak to Strong will always mean to me. Not perfection, not an ideal physique and not a life without challenges. It’s the decision to keep growing, to keep believing and to never stop discovering what you’re capable of.
The Strength to Become Yourself
There is something particularly moving about Amanda’s story.
At first glance, her photographs present a woman who is physically strong, confident and entirely comfortable expressing herself through modelling and glamour.
But as her answers reveal, the confidence we see today was something she had to discover gradually, through years of challenges, learning and personal growth.
Her achievements in fitness and modelling are impressive, but perhaps the most compelling aspect of her journey is the way she has changed her relationship with herself.
She no longer sees training as a way to correct something she dislikes about her body. Instead, she celebrates what her body can achieve.
She doesn’t believe that femininity and physical strength should exist in separate worlds. Instead, she embraces both, recognising that confidence allows people to express the many different aspects of their personalities.
And despite having built a substantial following and an expanding business, she remains focused on something far more personal than popularity: helping others recognise their own potential.
There is also an important message in the time her transformation took.
In a world of dramatic before-and-after photographs and promises of rapid change, Amanda’s journey reminds us that meaningful personal development rarely happens overnight.
Sometimes progress is measured in the smallest victories. Sometimes strength means resting rather than pushing harder. And sometimes the greatest achievement is simply reaching a point where you can look at your life and genuinely enjoy what you’ve created.
Perhaps that is what makes the name Weak to Strong so appropriate.
It doesn’t describe a destination where every challenge has disappeared or where perfection has somehow been achieved.
It describes a journey of discovering what is possible, embracing change and refusing to let the past dictate the future.
And for Amanda, that journey is still unfolding.
A Special Thank You to Amanda
HERA Magazine International would like to extend our warmest thanks to Amanda for sharing such a personal and inspiring account of her life, experiences and ambitions.
We appreciate the openness and thoughtfulness with which she has discussed subjects that are not always easy to revisit, and we are grateful for the opportunity to share her story with our readers.
Her journey is a reminder that confidence, strength and beauty can take many different forms, and that the most meaningful transformations are often those that happen within.
We wish Amanda every success as she continues developing Weak to Strong, exploring new creative opportunities and building the future she has worked so hard to create.
Thank you, Amanda, for allowing HERA Magazine International to be part of your story.
HERA Magazine International
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