This year I got to work with five of the most incredible ladies on the #BeautifulFBB Campaign 2020 which featured a group of Body Builders, Power Lifters and Strong Women.
I decided to reach out to the lovely Lucy Scroggs, director of Because I Can Fitness , to gain an insight into the world of fitness through weight training. Having completed such an inspirational campaign where I learned so much about these amazing athletes, I wanted to experience a small sample of exactly what it takes to create such a beautiful physique.
Upon arrival at Lucy’s gym space I was greeted with her usual warm and infectious smile and taken through all of the safety information required for the session.
Having never trained with weights before I had no idea what to expect but I was put at ease straight away and guided through each exercise. I gained an understanding of both how to lift weights safely and also how to focus on training specific muscle groups.
I could tell you how it went but instead, I’ll show you…
Having been put through my paces I left feeling pumped and completely energised. I learned so much and my body had worked hard, which became apparent when trying to do a Facebook live video at the end of the session with my arms shaking!
Lucy is simply the best, pairing encouragement with inspiration and expertise is her super power and I am so grateful to have learned from her. If you are based in Aylesbury, Bucks then please head over to the Because I Can Fitness website and get yourself booked in. If you are based elsewhere and aren’t sure whether weight training is for you, give it a go, you might just love it as much as I did.
Thank you so much for this experience Lucy, I will definitely be returning to learn from you again and I can’t wait!
Body positivity champion and photographer, Victoria Baptiste, has unveiled the first ever #BeautifulYou campaign which sees five female bodybuilders celebrating their own unique beauty.
Baptiste founded The Beautiful You Movement in 2018 to fight back against body shaming and online abuse. The movement works in partnership with Flux Photographic to offer unique photo shoots, story sharing and body positivity workshops.
This year’s #BeautifulYou campaign sets out to send the message that trolling and body shaming is not acceptable. It wants to encourage individuals to think about how they choose to speak to others and understand the impact of the opinions they share online and the profound effect they may have on the person in question. Having read some hurtful comments posted on a bodybuilder friend’s Instagram profile, Baptiste called upon a squad of incredible female bodybuilders, powerlifters and strong women to help spread the message and share their own beautiful selves.
Each of the women involved had the most inspiring stories to tell about their journey to becoming the amazing athletes they are today. The hashtags on the images below were chosen by each of the ladies to communicate their empowering messages, so far these images have inspired many people to embrace themselves and celebrate who they are. Most importantly these images have paved the way for important conversation that need to happen in order to begin moving towards ongoing positive change.
The Beautiful You Movement embraces beauty in all its various forms and called on the invited body builders to showcase their own body confidence with body-positive portraiture.
Research conducted by the Mental Health Foundation in 2019 revealed that 22% of adults and 40% of youngsters worried about their body image due to pictures seen on social media. A further one in five adults have also felt shame due to their body image over the previous 12 months, with one in eight experiencing suicidal thoughts. Body shaming incidents are also on the increase, with bullyingstatistics.org reporting a huge 94% of women and 84% of men affected by body-shaming both on and offline.
Victoria wants to change the game by calling out body shaming trolls and getting them to think about how their behaviour towards others impacts their confidence and mental wellbeing. She says, “There are so many factors which can affect our self-image, often these factors are outside of our control and tend to be driven by others and what we think others think of us.”
“The Beautiful You Movement is about self-acceptance, embracing who we are, allowing ourselves to exist unapologetically and standing together to support and empower each other. The #BeautifulYou campaign is an important reminder that this issue can impact everyone, no matter their age, profession or level of physical fitness. I invited five incredible women to showcase their own strength and beauty in a way that felt right to them. The images are powerful and empowering and I hope that’s just the start of things to come.”
As a photographer i’ve always known that I wanted my work not just to exist but to make an impact. When I started my company, the idea was to take powerful images that would challenge perceptions, I did the successfully for 4 years taking boudoir and makeover images until something hit me. I needed to do more.
I began thinking, what if it’s about more than just challenging perceptions. There’s strength in numbers right…and so The Beautiful You Movement was born!
What is Beautiful You all about?
The Beautiful You Movement is all about embracing who we are, unapologetically without fear of judgement. I believe that being unique is the most incredible thing a person can be, imagine being so rare that you are the only one of you to ever exist. Surely that’s something worth celebrating?
Beautiful You aims to encourage anyone struggling with body image, confidence or self-esteem, along with those who already embrace and celebrate themselves, to stand together, start a ripple effect and promote change. It also aims to tackle the ever growing societal attitude that it’s okay to leave negative, and often very personal comments, on the social media platforms of complete strangers. This is where the campaigns come in #saynototrolling
How can we all harness the power of Beautiful You?
Basically, it all comes down to giving less hoots about what other people think or more importantly, what we think other people think! Instead of allowing outside influences to make us feel any less than awesome, what if instead we decided that are actually enough just the way we are!
It’s time to change the game. Click here to find out more
