march

body image warrior by
chelsea bonner

  All hail the body diversity of the sisterhood!!
This is a warts n all look at how one woman has consistently, over many years, braved and defied so many society standards about how women “should” be portrayed in the fashion and media industries and come out on top.
I normally go for the fun, quirky style book review, however on this occasion, I must admit I’m finding it a tough challenge. Its an issue that affects us all, and although we have come along way in a few decades, the juggernaut that is social media is the next behemoth to conquer. Chelsea is there along for the ride, promoting all that is great about body diversity and we should give her a massive thanks and high five that she has found her true calling, rallying for what we women have always been, a normal and healthy size 14+.
This is my nod and acknowledgement to an Aussie woman for International Womens Day who inspires us all to be happy with who we are, inside and out.
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Official blurb - Part memoir and part positive body image manifesto, this is an insider's perspective on the industry and how the images the world gets to see are only part of the story. The modelling and advertising industries persistently tell women they're fat, ugly and abnormal if they conform to anything other than a western ideal of beauty. In 2002 Chelsea Bonner founded BELLA, a modelling agency focused on healthy body size and dedicated to changing our dangerously narrow perception of 'beautiful'.

Chelsea was born into the Australian entertainment industry, daughter of one of the country's most famous media couples, and grew up with the painful reality of her family life hidden behind a facade of gloss. She was expected to follow effortlessly in her parents' beautiful shadows, but her natural body shape led to teenage rebellion. Instead, Chelsea decided on a career as a modelling agent and, shocked at what she witnessed, became determined to change the industry from within. She has fought on through illness, broken relationships, the collapse of businesses and exclusion by powerful industry forces.