Fat Girl Exercising Hello my lovelies, my name is Gemma and I am fat. “Nooooo, don’t call yourself that!” I hear you cry, “You are beautiful.” And that I am! This may sound conceited but, like every other wonderful human creature, I am beautiful and the fact that I am fat doesn’t make these […]
Dear Lovelies, (and you are just that … lovely) I’m writing this to you as a teacher, a friend, a body positive activist and as someone who has been a teenager (and a fully grown assed lady) with serious body issues. I want to talk to you about my experience, my history and my present […]
A Love Letter From My Body Dear Gemma, This is your body here. I wanted to write and tell you about my feelings for you. I know we have not had the easiest of relationships, like the time we had gastroenteritis over Christmas or when our back went picking up a tissue from the floor. We […]
A whole year after I had 3 mini epiphanies that set in motion the whole body positivity thing for me, and I’m still trying to find my way. Some days it’s like I’m following a beacon of light and other days it’s like I’ve been given a map with no names on and no idea […]
Building children’s self-esteem This week I have headed up a BoPo event for some young people. It was a HUGE learning curve for me, not only did I discover that I can actually get over my crippling fear of public speaking, but kids are so receptive to the truth. I revealed to these lovely young […]
Download, Therapy and the Light at the end of the Tunnel So my 2012 cataclysmic year wasn’t just filled with doom. There was hope in that story. Firstly despite feeling dreadful, my first act of “Single life rebellion” was brought on during a girlie night of takeaways and wine. Designed to aid my recovery from […]
Tummy Love Tummy Love In her book, ‘Body Positive Power’, Megan Jayne Crabbe had a challenge about Tummy Love. The challenge was to caress and touch your tummy, feel the softness and shapes and enjoy them. Give them respect rather than ignore them, berate them or even poke, prod or tug on them. I […]
Yesterday I went for a massage, it’s a strange experience, but my chiropractor wanted me unknotted after a series of extremely stressful circumstances. It’s weird, I injured my back when I was 23 years old (seems like centuries ago) and ever since, any bout of stress, anxiety or trauma and I have an “adverse muscular” […]
I’m probably jumping a big gap here but I’ll try and fill in the necessary information. So suffice to say my lack of self-esteem didn’t seem to matter in the classroom, in fact I’d find to my detriment that I may even be a little too confident, but that’s a later story (me vs […]
Today I’m struggling. Like wrestling with a bear or alligator or a pair of freshly washed levi’s a la 1990. I’m having a bump in my road to positivity. It’s not my first and I’m sure it certainly won’t be my last. I’ve had two weeks of boozing and Easter Eggs. And despite saying […]