Lady Perez, an actress, model and entertainer from Youngstown, prepares for Wednesday’s annual EveryBody Fashion Show. Correspondent photo / Sean Barron

NILES — For several years, Makayla McIntosh was fulfilling her ambitions as a dancer, singer and filmmaker, though others’ misplaced priorities and misguided comments about her physical appearance jabbed at her self-esteem and placed her on a negative spiral.

“I don’t remember a time in my dance journey when someone wasn’t making a comment about my body or my weight, so I spent a lot of my life manipulating my body and controlling behaviors,” McIntosh, of Newton Falls, said. “As a dancer in New York City, how I looked in an audition was just as important as talent.”

McIntosh shared part of her tragedy-to-triumph story to begin the annual EveryBody Fashion Show on Wednesday at the Eastwood Event Centre.

Serving as master of ceremonies was Mya Snyder, a 2024 Youngstown State University graduate who earned a bachelor’s degree in business marketing and owns an online accessories business called Sew What? Sew This!

The 45-minute show’s primary goal was to promote body positivity and chip away at the often-associated link between one’s looks and self-worth, Jessica Frank, event organizer, noted.

An estimated 100 women, men and children of all sizes and shapes in a variety of stylish outfits – and some with golf clubs and other props – walked along the runway to thunderous applause on both sides.

During her presentation, McIntosh recalled that before the COVID-19 pandemic, she was in a bicycle accident in New York City while riding home from work. Earlier that week, she had a final callback for a part in a major Broadway show.

After moving back to Ohio, McIntosh found herself struggling with anorexia and bulimia, which halted her career as a singer and dancer. Nevertheless, she sought help, and entering the slow and arduous process of recovery from her eating disorders helped her gain a far healthier and redefining perspective on viewing herself as more than her career, McIntosh explained. She added that it also was the start of a new chapter in her life.

“Through redefining my purpose, I wrote, filmed and now released my first feature film, ‘Shredded,’ that follows two strangers who meet at a surf camp and connect and even begin the process of healing as they slowly open up to one another,” McIntosh said.

Among the models who graced the audience was Lady Perez of Youngstown, who wore a hat “dripping with pearls” that was complemented with a flower. Her outfit also consisted of a white wedding dress, a purse with pearl beads to match that theme, and a necklace with rows of white pearls.

“I’m a full-time entertainer,” Perez said, adding that she took part in an amateur night competition at the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem.

Perez, a 2023 Youngstown State University graduate, recalled having connected with Jennifer Frank, EveryBody event organizer, at YSU when Perez was interested in fashion design. Frank helped her with various fashion shows, said Perez, who recently auditioned for a part in the Broadway play “The Lost Boys.”

Walking on the runway in a bright-blue evening dress was Ciara Penny of Youngstown, who was in YSU’s fashion merchandising program.

She also runs Snatched, an online clothing, fashion and design business that offers everything from wardrobe styling to film set designs to visual merchandising.

“This is my first show – for a good cause,” Nakilia Adams of Warren, said.

For her part, Adams wore a white top and matching pair of pants assembled by her friend Nia Hall of Hermitage, Pa., a graphic designer who works for Mineral Ridge-based TWI, which provides vocational habilitation and adult day programming for those with a variety of challenges.

“Each day, we see messages of what we’re supposed to look like,” Frank said about the ubiquity of ads, social media posts, diet programs and other images depicting what many industry personnel and others say are ideal weights and looks for which models, actors and performers should strive to attain and maintain.

In her remarks before the show, Frank also mentioned Danielle Peters, a YSU freshman who died July 21, 2012, from complications related to bulimia and who was the inspiration for the EveryBody Fashion Show. Peters was 21.

McIntosh told the audience of a few hundred that an integral part of healing is connecting with others who have experienced something similar and can directly relate to the challenge. The best ways to help someone with an eating disorder or other related challenge is to offer support and unconditional love, as well as using sensitive language, she noted.

“Please, if you are a fitness instructor, a doctor or truly anyone, I ask that we all look to reexamine our language to bring love and healing instead of divide,” McIntosh said. “We don’t need to punish our bodies because we ate something. In every interaction, we have the opportunity to uplift those around us instead of tearing them down. You never know who is struggling around you.”