The reality star said she’s “going to continue to grow” and build her “strength”

After three years of dealing with body shaming, Katie Maloney-Schwartz is newly focused on ignoring the trolls and building her “strength.”

The Vanderpump Rules star, 32, opened up about the criticism she endured after gaining weight, and admitted that the negative comments made her feel “unlovable.”

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“Imagine finally finding the courage and strength to finally love yourself enough to stand up for yourself to then be ridiculed and torn down again,” she wrote on her Instagram Story on Thursday. “It took me three years. I was a very unhappy person. I took it out on everyone including myself. I was unlovable.”

Maloney-Schwartz said that she became passive as people attacked her shape.

“For the last three years I let MY BODY become a topic of conversation,” she said. “I say ‘let’ because I didn’t have the courage or self love [to] argue it. FOR THREE YEARS. I’m not perfect. I know who I am. But I’m not a weak bitch.”

She added: “I vowed to make changes. And I did.”

Now, Maloney-Schwartz said, she’s working on her confidence.

“I am going to continue to grow and remind myself of my own strength,” she said. “If that makes me a mean b—- in your eyes then so f—— be it! I’m remaining true.”

RELATED VIDEO: ‘Vanderpump Rules’ Star Scheana Shay Says Katie Maloney-Schwartz Used to be ‘The Ultimate Mean Girl’

Maloney-Schwartz said she deals with body shaming comments from people online as well as from her costars. During the show’s seventh season, airing now, James Kennedy called her “fat,” which led to more arguments, and event planner Kevin Lee said that her weight was “out of control” in a past season.

“It was shocking and appalling,” Maloney-Schwartz previously told PEOPLE of the incident with Lee. “I never thought that someone would have the guts to say something like that to my face, especially someone that I don’t have a relationship with. We don’t know each other that well. With Kevin it was just so inappropriate.”

Maloney-Schwartz told PEOPLE in May that her body changed significantly since the show started in 2013, which was “a little hard” for her to see.

Image zoom Katie Maloney-Schwartz in 2013 Dimitrios Kambouris/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty

“I was just 24 years old,” she said. “I was someone who worked out since high school — I was a cheerleader — and I just always worked out and never thought of it. I gave myself a rest, I quit one gym, and that was probably the wrong time to do that because I was 28 and my body was like, guess what, you can’t do that anymore! But it’s fine, it’s called age. I’m 30 and with every milestone I get to in life I try to embrace it.”

Maloney-Schwartz said she had to learn to get over it.