SHE may wear her tattoos and rock chick looks with pride, but for Marie Kelly it hasn't been an easy journey to free self-expression.

Growing comfortable with her quirky personality has been a long, hard road for the bubbly Warwick travel agent.

There was a time when abusive relationships diminished her self-confidence and made her feel worthless.

Marie shared her story with the Women of Warwick breakfast on Tuesday.

"I had been a coward, I felt like I did not matter," she said.

"A lot of who I am today is from who I wasn't allowed to be in the past."

As part of her recovery, Marie learnt to stop judging others.

The less she judged other people, the less she feared being judged.

"People are only afraid of being judged on things they themselves judge on," she said.

"How do we stop ourselves from judging? Do we block it?

"Do we hit ourselves in the face when a judgmental thought appears?"

It's a question Marie grappled with for a long time and she found the perfect answer.

The key, she says, is to turn judgment into curiosity.

"Don't think to yourself that's weird, instead marvel at how strange and how new it is to you," she said.

"Carve out a space in your mind for new information.

"The moment I started doing this and the moment I started accepting acceptance over rejection was the moment I was able to feel free."

The take home message from Marie's inspiring speech was loud and clear - take off the mask and show your true colours.

"Nobody will ever say, 'hey, remember that sunflower in the third row'," she said.

"What they'll say is 'hey, do you remember that sunflower who grew twice as tall as the other ones? That was awesome'.

"We must cherish uniqueness because nature has gone to great lengths to provide it."