Anna Watson, University of Georgia cheerleader, doesn’t allow things like being the only girl in the weight room or putting on some muscle intimidate her. She welcomes the challenge. 
She even claims her faith in God and wears it boldly. Even when she was denied a lucrative fitness modeling contract because she didn’t want to take the legal steroid Anavar—to put on more muscle—she stood strong in her convictions. “It was definitely something I was tempted with more than one time,” she said. “[The agent] made it sound as good as he could.”
“I don’t serve a modeling agent. I serve the Lord,” Watson said. “I’m not going to compromise my morals and my beliefs just to take pictures. I believe that my body is a temple and a beautiful creation, so I don’t want to put anything into it that can harm it.”
Watson began weightlifting during her time at Hawaii Pacific University. On a visit home during Christmas break, her family noticed that she seemed stressed. She had actually lost about 35 pounds. She said she was in the gym six days a week, but she only did cardio. When she realized that she couldn’t perform her cheer skills anymore, because she had burned off her muscle, she knew it was time to change. Her family suggested that she try weightlifting. She began to soak up all the knowledge she could about how to properly lift weights. She started to feel strong again, look better and feel more confident.
“I want to show people that working out can be freeing,” Watson said. “It can be enjoyable. It doesn’t have to be something that you have to do all the time. It doesn’t have to be oppressive and I think a lot of people just need to be freed from that image or that idea.”
Her goal is to pass this knowledge on to other women and help them to find success in the weight room also. Watson says that it’s hard for a girl to want to gain weight whether its muscle or not, but she thinks that soft muscle is beautiful.
A former gymnast, weight lifter and woman of faith, Watson believes that her journey is just beginning. In the past, she lost weight and obsessed over it, then gained weight and became stuck in that space, but she was able to overcome it. She states that she is happy and at peace where she is now.