Giving Back to Others Was the Turning Point in Kelcey Wetterberg’s Beauty Evolution

The ‘America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders’ star finds purpose through her career as a pediatric home health nurse.

Kelcey Wetterberg / Kelcey Wetterberg and SI Swimsuit

We determine our beauty, not the eye of the beholder. From an early age, women are judged by their hair, the color of their skin, their clothes and their bodies. Journey with our SI Swimsuit models and other industry changemakers as they discuss their Beauty Evolution, how they came to accept, honor and embrace their bodies and beauty, and how they are rewriting the narrative on what it means to be powerful, beautiful and who they are meant to be.

A dancer since the age of 3, Kelcey Wetterberg has always found beauty in self-expression. The 28-year-old Nebraska native was a member of the Arizona State dance team before joining the DCC squad in 2016. Wetterberg, a star on Netflix’s America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, officially retired from the NFL dance team following the 2023-24 season.

“ I feel the most beautiful when I’m using God’s gift that he gave me and I think that’s dancing,” Wetterberg tells SI Swimsuit. “I feel the most beautiful when I’m dancing and when I’m giving back to my community or talking with my friends and pouring into those relationships.”

When she first started in the professional dance industry, Wetterberg says she was chasing perfection, which quickly became exhausting. There was a turning point in which she realized that outer beauty is fleeting, so she chose to focus on her character and values instead.

“ One day I had enough and I was like, ‘I bring so much to the table and I just need to sit back and know that and realize that I do bring value,’” Wetterberg explains. “And I think that’s when I started to really like, truly love myself for who I am and not wanting to constantly change something.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kelcey Wetterberg (@kelcey_w)

Her career as a pediatric home health nurse has also influenced her beauty evolution, and Wetterberg finds purpose in giving to others, whether that’s through her work, helping a friend in need or volunteering at a homeless shelter.

“ Just being able to take yourself out of your bubble and give back and serve and see things that you wouldn’t normally see, like my perspective and my mindset will never be the same after I started [working with medically fragile children],” Wetterberg says. “I was working with a little girl that will never be able to walk or even worry about what she weighs or what she looks like, so just doing things like that and getting yourself out of your bubble of social media, work, coming home, looking at your body in the mirror and not liking what you see is really important.”

As for those who are hoping to take a deeper look inward, Wetterberg suggests taking a step back and journaling to discover what makes you you.

“ Journal about what makes you special so that you can remember those things when you are feeling insecure and not feeling confident, because I promise you that any sort of outer validation that you’re seeking is not going to last for long,” she says. “It could make you happy for maybe like a day or two or 15 minutes if you get a nice compliment, but all of it’s so fleeting. Dive deeper and just figure out what really makes your heart special and different than others.”

Next. Berkleigh Wright beauty evolution. Berkleigh Wright’s Beauty Evolution Lies in Being Unapologetically Herself. light