Hello Again!
Today I want to speak to you about my journey trying to find body confidence and I also want to talk about a campaign all about #EveryBodyInAds.
Body Confidence. It's a pretty big subject these days and I think that it has taken me up until now on my 24th year in this world, to actually like myself and the skin I'm in. I find it hard as a mum raising a little girl because I know just now the pressure on young people not only girls, is so much and there's a certain category that society want you to fit in and if you don't then you should be disgusted with yourself and should change to fit in. Why is it this way though? I think that social media plays a HUGE part in this and pretty much everywhere you look you can find the 'perfect' body. As a bigger girl this has made me very depressed and I'm not using that word lightly, I have went through spells where I hate to look at myself in the mirror because what I saw was horrible. That is why I stopped making YouTube videos, I hated looking at myself when editing because all I saw were my flaws and that made me immediately delete that footage!
But recently (and I literally mean like the past few weeks) I've noticed that I am really hard on myself. I don't look exactly how I'd like to look and yes I'd like to lose a little bit of weight but if I do I'll be doing it for myself and not because some magazine says that I should! I am in a happy relationship with a man who loves me for me. He doesn't look at me and see my flaws he looks at me and loves me. I have a little girl who looks up to me and loves me because I'm her mummy, I shouldn't be showing her that I hate myself because I don't want her growing up and hating herself!
So what I'm trying to say is that whatever skin you're in, whatever shape, size, colour or age you should love yourself because you are you. You only get to live once, live your life how you want to! Before hand I would never have put photos of myself like the ones below online but now I am not even thinking twice about it because why should I?!
Now for the campaign, Fiona De Buitlear is a jewellery designer for Trinkets Jewellery, from Ireland and she has a campaign called #EveryBodyInAds. Let's have Fiona tell us a little about how to campaign came about.
Where are the pictures of real women?
I was looking for some stock photos because I updated the website recently. I wanted to show some real women on the website. I could not find any pictures of "real women" on the stock photo sites. I don't know about you but I am a little bored with seeing all the same type of women and shots in websites, magazines and other ads. What I mean by this is stick thin highly glamorous women in their twenties or younger in very obviously "posed" shots. I do not have anything against such ladies but they only make up a very small percentage of people. There are almost no pictures of real women used in advertising.
As Fiona has said she's not against any body type but she just wanted to see more of a variety so that's what her campaign is all about.
The faces of Trinkets jewellery
I do not have vast resources but at the same time I want to do something about this if I can. This is my idea: I am launching an initiative to find the real faces of Trinkets jewellery. I will send a free piece of jewellery to any women who volunteer to allow me to use their pictures on my web site. They do not have to be models – I want to use pictures of real women! I will just ask for a promise that she will send me some photos of herself wearing the piece and I will ship a piece of jewellery to her absolutely free. I will use these pictures on my website to show off my products. If the thought of your picture being used on a website to promote jewellery makes you a little queasy then please ask yourself why? This is a call to the women out there to take a step towards reclaiming their individual and collective self esteem. I know it's not a lot but I think that if enough of us start to make a change then together we can change the world!
If you like the sound of this campaign and would like to join then email Fiona: fionadebuitlear@gmail.com
Also go and have a look at Fiona's Website and her blog. Also check out her on Social Media.
I'd like to say a massive thank you to Fiona for letting me take part and for my lovely necklace. I love what you're doing and don't give up!!
what a lovely and inspiration post! Important to all women around the world! xx
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