Falcon Storm's Blog, page 169
December 11, 2019
Body image workshops for teachers and other anti-diet wish-list must-haves
On a rainy, cold, dark and dreary day two weeks ago in London a team of people met to discuss how to end the marketing of diets and weight loss products around kids. It wasn’t a high profile meeting endorsed by celebrities or featuring #gifted goodie bags and a who’s who of Instagram influencers, but then no one said creating change was glamorous.
When I launched the #FreeFromDiets campaign back in the summer I had no idea how it would go down. It started with a few angry rants on Instag...
October 29, 2019
Kids school photos are being airbrushed, and it is not OK
On a late-night scroll through Twitter last night I saw a tweet about an airbrushing option being offered for one school’s photos. I was shocked, but after a bit of a read back over the tweeter’s timeline (the broadcaster Sam Walker), I saw she lives in America. So I shrugged my shoulders and assumed it was a US thing, hoping the trend wouldn’t make it to UK soil any time soon. We’re far too sensible for that… aren’t we?
[image error]Well no, as it happens, we’re not. Because, after sharing the tweet...
October 10, 2019
#FreeFromDiets Phase 2: it’s all happening!
It started earlier this year, when a leaflet for a local diet club landed on my doormat. I uploaded a bit of a ranty Instagram Story, talking about why it wasn’t OK to put leaflets for diet clubs through people’s doors. And my DMs lit up.
I heard from people in recovery for eating disorders, who’d relapsed after receiving such leaflets, from parents who’d been given leaflets at their kids’ school gates and from grown adults who were still suffering the disordered eating effects of being ...
September 11, 2019
REVIEW: Our Mark Warner Holiday to Perdepera, Sardina
The Mark Warner Perdepera resort in Sardinia sits nestled between a white sandy beach and lush green mountains, and when we woke up on our first morning in the resort we thought we’d been transported into an actual postcard. (SPOILER – we would return in a heartbeat.)
We went in the last week of the summer holidays, after a summer that included a back injury, a fairly soggy UK camping trip and countless cancelled family days out (due to said back injury). So when we got on the plane it’s...
July 23, 2019
Introducing the Naked Beach educational toolkit – bringing body image lessons into schools
One of the reasons I went out to Greece last year to film Naked Beach was because, as a mum, I feel really passionate about changing the body image culture my girls are growing up in.
From social media feeds full of digitally manipulated images, to TV shows only presenting one ideal body type, to advertising campaigns only featuring one idea of beauty, to diet companies selling the idea that health only has one “look”… there are so many different ways our kids are being sold an idea of w...
July 15, 2019
Body Cons is BACK! Details about Season 2 of the hit podcast about body image…
If you have a body, you have a body image. Some of us feel good in our skin, some of us feel bad, but one thing is for certain: we can all be affected by body insecurities.
Season 2 of Body Cons delves deeper into this subject and I’m so excited to share some of the really moving conversations we had with our diverse lineup of incredible guests.
The great thing about this topic is that it encompasses so many different areas. From mental health to social justice, parenting to feminism...
June 20, 2019
How to wear what you want
There’s this idea that we have to stick to rules around fashion. If you’re over a certain age you can’t wear a short skirt (don’t be a “mutton dressed as lamb!”), if you’re over a certain size you can’t show too much shape (“she’s brave showing her tummy!”), if you’re a mum you should wear a “mum uniform” etc. Well I say balls to that.
One of the things I get asked sometimes on Instagram and at events is how to have “the guts” to wear exactly what I want. For some this might seem like a ...
June 4, 2019
My campaign to ban ads for slimming clubs and weight loss products near kids #FreeFromDiets
I try really hard to make my home a space free from diet chat and negative body talk. It wasn’t always this way, but the moment my (then) 5 year old asked why I was weighing spinach was a wake-up call.
Although I’d never been to a slimming or weight loss club, I’d spent many years of my adult life dabbling in diets – yo-yoing on and off the restriction bandwagon telling myself I was on a “health kick”, when it was actually about losing weight and changing my shape, nothing to do with my ...
