One Last Blog...

I may have brought my campaign to a close but this morning when I woke up I felt that I just had to come back for one more blog. I think I've really got somewhere with the campaign. Not me personally but every single positive body image campaigner out there. The fashion industry has finally sat up and taken notice. Check out this editorial I wrote for my fashion blog regarding the subject this morning... http://wastemylifepretending.onsugar.com/ Rachel xoox

Well I suppose this is goodbye...

At the moment I'm slap bang in the middle of my GCSE's and everything is pretty hectic right now! However I've ben evaluating my time at Battlefront a lot recently and looking at how much I've learnt.... 

Campaigning.

When I started out at Battlefront I had a campaign (a very bad one at the time!) but I new nothing about "being a campaigner". Working with all the Battlefront mentors and my favorite, trial and error I can now happily say I'm a "campaigner". I didn't realize it at the time but when a friend asked me for advice on how to set up a campaign recently I realized that I knew exactly what to do, how to do it, the best way to do this, the best way to do that... 

My campaign, however much I believe in it and want it to success is bigger than me. So many people are championing it, celebrities etc. how have a greater chance for success. Hopefully I've raised awareness etc. but I think I'm gonna find another campaign I believe in to join, something I my experience etc. can make a big difference in. 

So I've decided to stop running this campaign. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do yet but I'll keep you posted! However I am going to spend sometime doing other stuff before taking on something else big like another campaign, and one of these things is that I'm gonna be lending my advice and experience to some other campaigns, for example my friend Paul's campaign, The Literary Den Campaign, (http://battlefront.co.uk/campaign/the-literary-den-campaign/) which as a writer the cause of getting writing and writing as a leisure activity to be seen as "cool" again is very close to my heart! 

So check out Paul's campaign, and thank you to everyone for their support! (and thanks to everyone who's left me negative messages too - its been nice to polish up my debating skills!)

Rachel

xoxo

Hi

My name is Caroline and I am part of Battlefront team. Rachel and I have been discussing the fact that we should not judge people by their cover so I thought I would share my thoughts with you too! 

A prime example of how people are pre-judged was witnessed by people ALL over the world when an incredibly talented singer was mocked when she appeared on stage because of the way she looked. Right up until she opened her mouth to sing, EVERYONE in that room looked at her with disbelief - and some with pity - expecting her to show herself up. This woman was of course, Susan Boyle. 

The looks of surprise were followed swiftly by whoops of joy and shouts of support when they heard her sing. What started out as a very uncomfortable bit of viewing turned into a very uplifting and inspiring experience. Like Paul Potts, Susan's talent has been unearthed in an arena where anything and anyone goes. And because of this open-minded arena (albeit it in an entertainment arena) people who are ACTUALLY talented are given a chance. It was a great moment in TV - but alas they are few and far between. Moments like these give you rare insights to how the media can work miracles and change someone's life for the positive - but we need more moments of these realisations so that people look beyond the exterior to what is inside. 

We live in a materialistic world where possessions and the way a person looks can be the difference between acceptance or rejection. But I think times are changing and people are more and more looking inside themselves and asking 'what really matters?' At a time where money and jobs are worryingly sparse, we need to ask ourselves 'do material things REALLY make us who we are or are we all worth more than that?'

It's Been A Long Time Coming...

Well sorry I haven't updated in ages... its just that not much has happened! I've been getting really stuck into preparing for my GCSE's (art coursework and exam preparation's a killer!) 

Also if anyone wants advice on how to make your Mac Book pro survive having a mug full of water spilt over the keyboard I'm your girl! 

I promise I'll be back with another campaign update after the exams!

Rachel

xoxo

My Debut

Well Rachel introduced me-I'm Angus. Almost everyone thinks these body image issues concern girls almost all of the time. However ive almost always had a friend who's been obsessively worried about his body, it may be about anything from their build to their fitness or may be caused by different things but they're still just as important for this campaign

so if anyone wants to ask any questions ill be happy to answer
Angus

Introducing Angus!

Ok so some of you may have watched my campaign interview 'Boys Opinions Matter Too' where I interview my good friend Angus on the male side of body image.

Angus has offered to become a guest blogger for this campaign so look out for his blog and twitter posts on the guys side of positive and negative body image!


Rachel

xoxo

Catch Up...

Hey guys,

Sorry there hasn't been much action and other stuff like that on my Battlefront pages... those of you who've been there will know exactly how much work taking GCSE entails! I'm literally snowed under and I haven't done any campaign work, or magazine work even for like... months!

One way I've been thinking about kick starting my campaign, is to do some sort of press stunt...

I have a couple of ideas that I'd like to think about an look at the possibility of doing, but if there are any, like creative geniuses out there feel free to drop me a line! I'm sure your ideas will be way better than mine! Also, if there are any budding make up artists or fashion or portrait photographers out there... it would also be great to hear from you! (I just won't tell you why yet!!!)

Rachel

xoxo

Missing In Action & Plee For Help

As many of you may have noticed I've vanished off of the radar a bit. Things have been pretty hectic my end! Lets see... GCSE Mocks, not pretty I'm telling you, lots of magazine work and magazine photo shoots, oh and the incredible amount of accidents I've managed to have in the past two weeks since I received from being sick... I have a bruised nose and upper lip from being hit in the face with a Lacrosse stick while playing Lacrosse (now I know why we have to wear gum shields - I would have lost some of my front teeth!), bruised and swollen wrist from very same Lacrosse session, and a big bruise on my forehead from opening a car door into my face (I know... I'm a klutz!). It didn't bruise at the time but coming back from a photo shoot I hit my head with the camera so NOW its bruised!

So in short I've been being a bit of an idiot. Then I had History coursework: 'Why is the Battle of the Somme regarded as such a great military tragedy' and 'Is there sufficient evidence in Sources A to G to support the Modern Military Historian John Keegans’s view that Haig was an ‘efficient and highly skilled soldier who did much to lead Britain to victory in the First World War’?'

I think you get the picture.

Now onto campaign ish stuff...

I'm stuck. I'm trying to think of a stunt. I;m trying to think of stuff to do... I'm out of ideas!

So if anyone has ANY send them in... I'm DESPERATE!!!

Rachel

xoxo

Why DO Celebrities have to be thin?

Ok so I’m expanding my campaign to not only encompass models but celebrities too. I like reading blogs and stuff, my favorite three being one on mainstream alternative music news, one on fashion and one (I’m ashamed to admit it) on celebrity gossip. (Though I do skim over the pointless articles to things slightly more important to me such as who’s being cast in the next Twilight film for example!)

One news article I have been following this week is the story of Jessica Simpson’s weight gain. Apparently even President Obama had something to say about it.

I personally can’t see what the fuss is about - she looks fine, if not better than ever! And the fact that people are starting to suggest that she’s having a personal break down just because she’s gained weight - ridiculous!

http://tinyurl.com/djps4b

But this got me thinking... why DO celebrities supposedly have to be thin?!? Your ideas?

Celebrity Fitness Videos

This afternoon, because apparently you can’t play Lacrosse on frozen over pitches covered in snow turned solid ice my team and I were sent to a classroom during sport. On the Lacrosse notice board it said to come in our sports kit and trainers. When my team mates and I arrived we discovered we were going to be doing one of my least favorite activities. A celebrity fitness video. I’d done this particular one once before and I seem to remember hating it and being totally useless to boot.

I was right. As a joke I moaned to my friend never to me, Helen whom some of you would have seen in the documentary (she was the make-up artist), that I really shouldn't be doing this as its against my ethos. I only said it because I like to complain about being made to do things I don’t want to. But a few minutes later while I was jumping up and down I was like, wait a sec! This really is against my beliefs.


Why do celebrities make fitness videos? -----> Celebrities make fitness videos because they make lost of money by doing so as people buy them.

Why do people buy celebrity fitness videos? -----> Because people want to look ‘nice’ and thin like said celebrity.

Is wanting to look like someone in a magazine who is totally different to your beautiful self useful? Helpful? Constructive? A positive thing to do? -----> NO!


Unfortunately after this revelation I kept my mouth shut figuring that my coach wouldn’t be best impressed if I refused to do the same exercise as everyone else based on the grounds of my personal ethics and my not wanting to look like a hypocrite so I had to finish up. But the afternoon got me thinking so at least it achieved something.


What do you think about Celebrity fitness videos?

Help Me Get Well!

Just because I'm ill, and bored, I decided to google my Battlefront campaign and I found the teaching notes for my Battlefront episode on the Channel 4 education website and a list of activities for PSHE, PVE and Citizenship teachers to get their classes to do after spending 1/2 an hour of being tortured by my presence on the big screen of their classroom... 

Some of these questions I think are really good, but predictable, but some of them I really wanna know what peoples answers to them are! So it would be really fantastic if you guys could answer them for me, either in a comment to the blog, or a Bebo page comment or a Battlefront comment or an email... you know the drill! 

And I really wanna read your answers! You'd all be contributing to me getting better quicker!!! 

1. What is Rachel's opinion of images of models and celebrities in the media? (Ok, I know what MY opinion is, but I wanna know if I got my message across right!) 

2. How much impact do you think Rachel's online magazine will have?

3. Who helps out Rachel the most and why? (Again, I know who helped me the most but I'm curious to your ideas on this...) 

4. How would you promote the use of healthy-weight models in fashion photographs? 

And finally, I may be digging my own grave here... but after seeing the question I just had to ask...

5. Rachel is a healthy size - how does she look? 

For a full list of the questions check out the page I got them from here:

http://www.channel4learning.net/support/programmenotes/micro/battlefront/prog4-activities.html

And I can't wait to hear your answers!!!

Rachel

xoxo

Sorry...

As I have just said to all my magazine staff - sorry for being M.I.A recently! I've had exams (grrr....) and I'm just waiting on the marks... :S...

Anyways... I have a little announcement for you all, something, considering as it directly affects them I hope my magazine staff won't kill me for telling you guys all first!

Lipstick Royalty Magazine are launching a mini mag which is going to be part of the magazine each month. I had the idea for it when doing some campaign research! Its called Diamond Duchess Magazine (I know... what's this with me and the crazy names!) and its going to be headed up by Who Wants To Be A Size Zero campaign team member and Lipstick Royalty fashion editor Amy.

Diamond Duchess is going to be a woman's magazine like Cosmopolitan and Glamour and Company.. but with out what i call all the nasty bits, like diet pages! Its going to be a real magazine for real women who WANT to feel good in their own skin!

We're hoping to launch it in March on the Lipstick Royalty page but we can't do that until we get a creative Director, so if you know someone who has graphic design skills they'd like to lend to creating our layouts each month give us a buzz!

Just one last think, completely unrelated to the campaign but really really important to me! My writing group (which Amy and LR Arts Editor Lauren are also a member of) launched an Anthology of short stories last year, selling it in aid of the Laura Crane trust for teenage cancer. My short story 'Family' is published in there as well as some other pretty fantastic pieces of writing and I really recommend it as a great read! You can either download it as a PDF or buy it as a paperback here:

http://www.lulu.com/content/2619890

All proceeds go to charity! We've sold 51 copies so far and we'd love to sell lots more to be able to present a great big fat check to the charity!


Enjoy your weekend,

Rachel

Did you know?

In 1970 the average age of a girl who started dieting was 14; by 1990 the average dieting age fell to 8.

After viewing images of female fashion models, seven out of ten women felt more depressed and angry than prior to viewing the images.

Young girls are more afraid of becoming fat than they are of nuclear war, cancer, or losing their parents.

30% of women choose an ideal body shape that is 20% underweight with an additional 44% choosing an ideal body shape that is 10% underweight.

Twenty years ago the average fashion model weighed 8% less than the average woman. Today she weighs 23% less.

Kate Moss is 5’7” tall and weighs 95 pounds; 30% below ideal body weight. Her fellow supermodels Niki Taylor and Elle Macpherson both meet the physical criteria for Anorexia.

In 1999 Gisele Bundchen was Vogue’s model of the year; the magazine stated that this was because she strayed from the rail-thin image. At the time Gisele was 5’11” and weighed only 115lbs, that’s 25% below her ideal body weight.

The average woman in the UK is 5’4” tall and weighs 140lbs. The average supermodel is 5’10” tall and weighs only 112lbs.

Special thanks to campaign team member Kee for finding these stats out!