by Laura Jane Davis
I am extremely grateful to be a part of the Go Inspire community and wanted to give you a little bit of an introduction to myself and the future content you can expect to see from me.
My name is Laura, I am a mother to a beautiful 3-year-old who is really the reason I began creating what I create today. After my son I developed Postpartum PTSD which led me to therapy, which led me to understanding that when someone holds space for you to express, beautiful things happen. After working with life coaches and attending numerous online webinars, I found a community of women who believed the same thing I did, that we all deserve success and to be celebrated.
2 years ago, I found myself feeling very disempowered, alone in my thinking that all women deserve to be seen, heard and given a voice to tell their story and their truths. Then I started my Instagram account, I started to share my truth and empower myself and the most incredible thing happened.
Women who shared my vision began to enter my life. They shared my passion for creating a community were every woman is given a voice, were we take up space and are encouraged to be our fully expressed self.
One of the first topics I found myself drawn towards speaking openly about was body image and diet culture. I have shared my own journey with my body and the way diet culture has played a part in my life for the last 28 years. I began trying to educate myself on diet culture and body confidence, following other women who are part of a movement were we no longer feel shame around our bodies and instead learn to celebrate them.
I began first describing my posts as ‘Body Positive’ and I soon became educated around the origins of the term Body Positive and the meaning behind the movement. The body positivity movement was created to empower marginalised bodies who are the subject of discrimination based on their size.
I learnt that actually for myself, my truth is that the only person who discriminated my body was myself, I have privileges that others don’t and for me to use the term ‘Body Positivity’ as a White woman who fits in with societies beauty norms, it takes away the whole essence of why the body positivity movement began and more importantly perpetuates the cycle of marginalised bodies not being empowered.
I use the term body confidence or body acceptance now and that may also change, I think it is incredibly important we are open to constantly learning what the origins of movements are, who were they created to support, do we represent the people that the movement was meant for?
I will be sharing with you all my journey through accepting my body and all the things I learn along the way. You can expect to hear me talking about diet culture, beauty norms, my favourite books that have helped me educate and empower myself and some of the women that have inspired and empowered me and still continue to do so every day.
If you have anything you would find especially useful for me to share with you all then please feel free to get in touch. You can find me on Instagram @lauraatthespace.
Written by Laura Jane Davis (22/11/20)
