Even with today’s increased awareness of filters and photoshopped images, the fashion industry still mostly presents unrealistic images.
Body Image Warrior provides an insider’s perspective on the modelling industry and is an uplifting story about Chelsea Bonner’s mission to change the way we think about beauty. Chelsea challenges the modelling industry to include a diversity of shapes, sizes and backgrounds.
Chelsea was born into the Australian entertainment industry. She grew up with famous parents and the reality of life hidden behind a glossy façade. She was expected to effortlessly follow her parents, but her natural body shape led to teenage rebellion. Instead, she decided on a career as a modelling agent and was shocked at what she witnessed within the industry.
The fashion industry is worth millions of dollars, but it continues to send messages that can be damage the wellbeing of many young men and women, she says. To help facilitate change, Chelsea has made a personal commitment as an advocate for body positivity. In 2002, she founded BELLA a modelling agency focused on healthy body size and dedicated to changing the narrow perception of beauty.
Body Image Warrior explores celebrity child status, industry insider knowledge, personal body image struggles and triumphs. What I liked most about Body Image Warrior is the combination of memoir and body positivity rhetoric. Chelsea cleverly argues that changing the fashion industry is vital for all of us.
Reviewer: Andrea Molloy Murdoch Books, RRP $36.99