What do you get when you take a group of legendary humans, put them together with 4 badass female-led businesses, and head to the foot of Ben Lomond to stick the middle finger to diet culture?

COMPLETE AND UTTER JOY

If you’re a SLAM fan then you know that our mission is to be part of a world where our health is not determined by the size and shape of our bodies and our sense of self-worth is not dictated by diet culture.

Every year as the weather starts to heat up, many of us begin to feel the pressure to lose weight or change our bodies in some way in order to be worthy of wearing clothes that keep us comfortable and cool. This pressure not only holds so many of us back from living the life we want to lead - but it also perpetuates the narrative that only one body size is worthy and leaves many humans somewhere between feeling rubbish about themselves and engaging in fad diets and extreme exercise programs in order to reach that “ideal” shape and size.

Last year we launched a campaign to encourage all humans to let go of those BS pressures and do the things that make them happy

Wear the Shorts

Eat the Ice Cream

Wear the bikini

Play on the beach

Jump in the sea

We wanted to encourage people to break free from a diet culture that tells us we are flawed and show that all bodies have lumps and bumps and lines and wrinkles. These are not flaws - they are the map of our incredibly unique lives -

That body fat on your hips and belly?

It keeps you alive

Those scars on your legs?

They show you’re a survivor

The stretch marks?

Those are your tiger stripes that show your fierce growth

Those lines on your face?

They are the memories of love and joy and pain and sadness - the experiences that make YOU who you are.

We noticed that very quickly women began sending us messages and using our #weartheshorts hashtag to say that they had felt empowered to wear shorts for the first time in years or that they’d played on the beach with their kids and didn’t feel the need to cover up, the stream of messages we received was both inspiring and heartbreaking, hearing how many people felt they didn’t have the right size, shape or texture of body to wear clothes that kept them cool showed us that more people needed to hear this message and so this year we wanted to take things a step further.

The Inspiration

I was on holiday in Gran Canaria in April and as often happens when I’m in the sun my mind started to buzz with an idea- what if for #weartheshorts this year we got a group of incredible humans together, of all shapes, sizes and life experiences and created an experience that showed them (and the world) that we were done with the image of “perfect” and were ready to show that all bodies are worthy? I wanted to create something that encouraged people to find joy in what their bodies can do- not what they look like. I wanted to create beautiful images that showed women liberated, connected, and being their badass selves - taking up space and just having an absolute blast and I wanted other women to look at these images and think “tme” and know that shorts aren’t just for slim, hairless, smooth bodies - we all deserve to wear what feels good!

I knew I couldn’t do this alone and of course, whenever I think of beautiful images I think of my best friend and the world’s best photographer - Kayleigh Powney. Not only is Kayleigh an absolute magician with a camera but she is also the ultimate women’s woman, she wants everyone to win and having worked with her now for 6 years, photographing hundreds of our members, I have watched her transform even the timidest model into the queen she really is with her encouraging, calm and empowering nature. Kayleigh is the type of person who makes you feel like your best self the minute you meet her and so I knew I had to have her involved in this campaign.

My next thought was what were people going to wear? One of the main issues and barriers women have is that clothing continues to be made to look good on one body size and shopping experiences continue to be stressful. There is one place though where the experience of the guest is put before the sale of the item, where the performance of the clothing is equally matched with how it looks and they even have a concept called “the science of feel” because they know that clothes should be made to fit and feel good on our bodies- not the other way around. If you haven’t guessed already- that place is lululemon. I am fortunate enough to be a legacy ambassador for lululemon in Glasgow and so I reached out to them and asked if they’d like to be involved and provide the outfits for our participants. Their answer was hell yes! and so the ball began rolling on our campaign.

When I came up with this idea I really wanted it to be an experience for the people involved, I didn’t just want it to be a photoshoot- I wanted us to go on a journey and having had my own body image struggles I knew this work could be confronting for those involved and so Kayleigh and I reached out to Self-Love Coach Diane Jones to offer support and guidance to the participants, we worked together with lululemon to ensure that every single person who was supporting the campaign had the tools and resources to hold space for our participants and on a journey, we went indeed!

The Journey

First, we had the outfits to source and with the support of lululemon, we created an in-store experience that was inclusive and supportive. This wasn’t an ordinary fit session - we started with self-connection and grounding from Diane, followed by the opportunity to try on lots of different outfits until we each found the perfect fit, shape, size, and feel. This was the first time we had come together as a group and I remember looking around and feeling my heart swell with pride and love, the group immediately gelled and began connecting and I just knew we’d invited an incredible bunch of humans to do this work with us.

Once we had our outfits sourced it was time to head to the location! I chose Rowardennan because it was the first place I stayed in my camper van and when I woke up in the morning, I went to one of the little beaches and immediately had these visions of our group dancing and just full of absolute joy and I knew this was the right space for us, it’s also when I knew I had to have the legend that is Emma- co-owner of Wandern Media, epic videographer and one of my very best friends involved to capture these wonderful humans in motion. Emma is such calm energy and the ultimate badass feminist, her vision and what she captured on the day was something I could not stop watching!

The Shoot

The shoot day itself was incredible, it rained- probably the worst rain we had had in a while but it made no difference (we all live in Scotland after all!) One of our group said it was like the rain was a symbol - washing away all of the shit we’ve put up over the years - the things we might have done to our bodies or had done to them, the crap people have said to us and the things we say to ourselves. It was all drowned by that heavy rain as we let ourselves go and had an absolute ball.

This experience was a total life goal for me, bringing people together in connection, smashing the glass ceiling, and sticking a middle finger to diet culture feel like my purpose in this wild and crazy life and I am so grateful to each and every one of these incredible humans who said YES - stepped out of their comfort zones and joined me in wearing the hell out of those shorts!

I hope these photos brought you joy, I hope you looked at them and saw a bunch of epic humans, who look just like you, liberated and having an amazing time. Humans who don’t owe anyone pretty, perfect or “good”. Humans who are being celebrated as their complete and utter whole selves and I hope you’ll start to look at yourself differently, I hope you’ll be kinder and more compassionate to the wonderful being that is you and stick a giant middle finger to anyone who tells you that you have to be anything other than your wonderful, unique and legendary self.

Wear the shorts Queen <3