Why Self-love is Still Needed in a World of Body Positivity

Body Positivity has been on the rise on Instagram since it kicked off in 2012. Now, 10 years later #BodyPositivity has almost 10 million posts. But why do we still need self-love?

By Olivia Frost ~ April 21, 2022

The body positivity movement has come a long way in helping people's body image and confidence. Face image is something rarely spoken about and can often be overshadowed by body positivity. If we are focusing so much on our bodies being beautiful, what about our faces? We know that body positivity is an extremely important movement and one that is still going strong, with millions of people posting about it on social media around the world. Body positivity dates back to the 1960s, so let's take a look back at where it started and where this movement is set to go in the future.

The Body Positivity Movement from 1969-2022. (Created by Olivia Frost)

Since the 1960s women have been campaigning to have more representation in the media. For years all we would see represented were stick thin, white, blonde models. In a Marie Claire article called "The 20 Most Famous Supermodels of the '90s", 16 out of the 20 models named were white and, unsurprisingly, there was no body diversity either.

In 2022, the newest trend that we have seen brewing is body neutrality. This new wave can be described as the act of holding a neutral stance towards your body. According to Byrdie, body neutrality is the idea that you can exist without thinking too much about how your body looks, either positive or negative. This means that, unlike body positivity, you do not have to love your body every day. You can accept and appreciate everything your body does for you.

Body Positivity vs Body Neutrality. (Created by Olivia Frost)

Thanks to social media, the type of people we have seen portrayed has changed. When Instagram launched in 2010, we saw the first influx of social media influencers that started the phenomenon. Over one million people signed up to Instagram within the first three months. Fast forward 12 years and a huge influencer presence can be seen. Body positive influencers are beginning to change the tide of the media.

In the past, we have been conditioned to think the heavily edited images we were seeing across all media platforms were the “ideal” standard – one that we should aim and desire for. This toxic way of thinking is finally changing, thanks to body positivity. Plus-size models, including Ashley Graham, Iskra Lawrence and Kate Wasley have taken to Instagram to show off their confidence and to show others what real bodies look like.

Ashley Graham showing off her completely un-edited pregnancy body.

Bella Davis is a 26-year-old body acceptance and self-love influencer from Sydney. With over 180,000 followers on Instagram, Bella is a self-acclaimed "self-love hype girl". Posting completely un-edited, relaxed photos of her body and sharing motivational messages is Bella's way of helping her followers to love their bodies. Bella is one of the influencers moving towards body neutrality too, as she believes you don't have to love your body every single day. Bella says: "For me, body neutrality is really important, especially on those days where you are really struggling to love your body, it feels impossible. We can be neutral towards it, we can have an appreciation for it; it doesn't have to be love. We can be okay with it."

One message Bella hopes that her followers take away from her account is "stop letting your body insecurities control your happiness. Stop putting your life on hold 'til you're thinner. You don't owe anyone thinness - it's okay to put on weight". Body positive influencers are changing the way women are being represented, Bella says: "I grew up not seeing my body represented anywhere - online, on TV, in magazines, and now I see it represented on social media. It is such an empowering place for me. These body-positive content creators have normalised "normal" bodies, they have normalised stretch marks and cellulite - because these things are all normal, we have just never seen them normalised."

In the past, social media was seen as a place that could be harmful to your mental health, however Bella believes that it is now turning into a safe place for people to go when they are struggling. Bella says: "If you are having a bad body image day, we can now go online and read a positive post and feel better in our bodies. We can understand that we don't have a "bad" body - it is just a bad body image day."

Bella's Instagram.

Editing and retouching images to remove any sense of reality from photos can have a negative impact on those viewing them. Young people are the most at risk from this, as it can cause a devastating long-term impact on their mental health. Adam Penkul is a body image and anxiety coach and counsellor. Adam also treats patients with body dysmorphia, a mental health condition that causes excessive thinking about perceived defects or flaws in your appearance. These flaws are often minor or even non-existent to others.

Adam believes that although body image concerns are often deep-rooted, the heightened use of social media nowadays hasn’t helped this. Adam says: “I believe that social media adds to the pressure on young people to evaluate their self-worth in a superficial way. Youth is a time when all of us struggle with our identity and belonging. Social media can become a platform for self-criticism and comparison. It presents a filtered, curated, idealised presentation of others’ lives, where all of the blemishes and life struggles are edited out, giving the illusion that we fall short of the standards we see.”

Adam also believes that social media can leave us feeling “cut-off” from the real world. “Real-life teaches us to contend with imperfection and how to take refuge in building a robust personality and in friendship, whereas social media doesn't offer this opportunity for courageous engagement,” Adam says.

Cosmetic procedures are often the drastic route that young people go down to change their appearance and look more like the people they see on social media. According to Fashionista, fillers, Botox and liquid rhinoplasties are the most common procedures people are getting to achieve the "Instagram Face", seen on influencers and celebrities on social media.

Julie Brackenbury is a nurse practitioner who is passionate about body and face image. Julie works at JB Cosmetic and experiences clients with body image concerns as a result of social media every day.

Face Image Podcast with Julie Brackenbury

Social media advertising is one of the most efficient and effective ways for brands to reach their target audience and get their message heard. This is not just the case with advertising products, social media campaigns can help brands to get their word out and shared around for millions to see. Brands including Dove, Aerie and Adidas are the leaders in Body Positivity campaigns across social media.

Dove was a pioneer in this when it released its first campaign for “Real beauty” back in 2004. Of course, social media did not exist in the way it does today, so the campaign ran on television and in magazines. Dove started the Real Beauty campaign as a response to the findings of a major global study, The Real Truth About Beauty: A Global Report, which had devastating results. It revealed that only 2% of women around the world would describe themselves as beautiful. Since then, Dove has run several campaigns on social media, all with the aim to make women feel beautiful. Dove’s latest project, The Dove Self-Esteem Project, was created in order to help young people feel that the beauty they see on social media is a source of confidence – not anxiety or worry. Dove aims to have helped 250 million young people to build a more positive body image by 2030. The #NoDigitalDistortion movement has seen thousands of influencers post un-retouched images with no filters to make Instagram a more positive place and to inspire the next generation of young women that beauty is not about perfection.

Aerie, much like Dove, is all about natural beauty and is against any editing of its images. Their hashtag, #AerieREAL has over 300,000 posts from influencers across the globe. Images on its site include all of the natural aspects of its model's bodies, including stretch marks, cellulite and body hair, which would usually be edited out by most brands.

Dove's Most Recent TV Campaign.

Adidas’ recent sports bra campaign, “bare breasts” shook up the internet, showing us once again, how we are not quite there yet with full body acceptance and inclusivity. The campaign, which showed 24 bare breasts of all shapes and sizes, aimed to remove the stigma and shame around women's body types. Adidas was promoting a new sports bra range, which contains 43 different styles, so that everyone can find a style that works for their body type. The backlash received included negative comments about the post being “distasteful” and “off-putting”. Some people, however, praised Adidas for their bold campaign, saying that it's just what women need to see on their feeds – normal bodies that aren’t all perfectly airbrushed.

Adidas' Bare Breast Campaign.

Beth Rushbrook, known as Self Love With Beth to her Instagram followers, posts self-love, body positive content. Beth prides her account on being a "happy little corner of the internet" - where she provides her followers with a safe place to feel confident in their own skin. Beth started her account when she finished school, just after the first COVID lockdown. Now 17, Beth’s account has grown bigger than she ever imagined. She originally set out to post unposed, unedited photos, to help herself and her friends gain confidence, however, she now has over 5,000 followers who are following along her self-love journey.

Beth believes more needs to be done in order to make Instagram an even more positive place for everyone. Beth says: "I don’t think social media is the whole reason people hate how they look, but it does play a huge role. I think filters and editing are the main problems." Beth thinks that it is not Instagram, but TikTok that is the main issue causing face and body image concerns. "TikTok is all about pretty privilege, because all you have to do is be pretty to get TikTok famous," Beth says, "There are so many trends, like side profile checks, that are about showing your nose and jawline off, and most of the time the ones that get the most traction and love are the ones with small noses and sharp jawlines, which makes people who don’t have those feel ugly or as if they’re not as good." Body positive influencers, including Beth, are putting in the tough work to counteract these toxic trends.

Beth's Instagram

The power of TikTok filters can be seen in some more positive recent trends on the app, where users show themselves with a full glam makeup filter and then contrast this with a transition into their natural faces. TikTok filters are so easy to use, and, as you can see in the example below, all it takes is less than 30 seconds to drastically change your appearance. According to CyberCrew, 24% of TikTok users in the UK are aged between 15 and 25 years old. The concern is that these filters could be dangerous for these young users, who may not realise that what they are seeing is completely unnatural and fake.

The power of TikTok filters - bare-faced to full-glam in under 30 seconds.

What does the future hold for our body and face image concerns? The ideology of self-love is being spread around social media and with it, our body image concerns are improving - but so much more can still be done. There is still so much space for diversity and representation within the media. Although body positivity influencers have put in so much work to change the tide of social media, it is only beneficial to the people struggling if they follow the right people. It is all about whom you follow and engage yourself with. If you are following people on social media who make you feel bad about your body - just unfollow! Curate your feed to make it the way you want to see it - fill it with people who celebrate their bodies, and you will feel better about yourself. Embrace the body positivity movement and change the way social media can have an impact on your mental health.

If you are still struggling with body or face image concerns, here are a few tips, that we have gathered from the experts we interviewed.

Some advice on what to do if you are struggling with body image issues due to social media. (Created by Olivia Frost)

Please reach out and talk to somebody if you or someone you know are seriously struggling with body image concerns.

National Centre for Eating Disorders

Helpline: 0845 838 2040 | eating-disorders.org.uk

YoungMinds

Helpline: 0808 802 5544 | youngminds.org.uk

Samaritans

Helpline: 116 123 (freephone) | samaritans.org/

Mind

Helpline: 0300 123 3393 | mind.org.uk