My Story
This is my story of how I came to create The Body Confidence Project, and some of the results both I and clients have experienced 10 weeks in.
About The Videos
As I write, I am just putting the finishing touches to this programme, ready to be sent out tomorrow to you roadtesters. I just want to write down my thoughts about making the videos, because I think it is quite helpful for everyone, seen as we live in such a visual world today. You will have experience of the camera and its body confidence challenges, I am sure.
As I said in the above video, seeing myself on film earlier this year was one of the key things that gave me the idea for this whole project. I was so ashamed of my appearance, yet at the same time I was astonished that I felt that level of shame. It pushed me to get under the bonnet of my body hatred.
About a week ago, there were no videos at all in The BCP. It was all written and audio content. It was at this point that I realised that it was important for me to engage via video with anyone taking this programme. Moreover, seeing myself on video for the first time since I fell off that shame cliff earlier this year was going to be interesting to say the least!
So I dived in and have made about 7 videos so far.
So, what was it actually like and has my ten weeks doing The BCP made seeing myself on video any easier?
The answer is a resounding YES.
When I saw the videos, I thought all of these things:
#1 Oh no. Antenna head again (you know, when your hair frizzes up)
#2 Your make up isn’t sleek enough
#3 Your skin looks a bit doughy
#4 Come on. Are those really the best clothes for a product about body confidence? Get some new threads, girl!
#5 You definitely should only make videos straight after getting your hair cut.
#6 Because of all of the above, nobody will take you seriously and will not get to the good ideas you have piled up for them.
And at the same time, I thought:
#1 At this point, all of the above are OK.
#2 None of those things are more important than me getting my message out. If me speaking directly to women engages them more in the content, then I am willing to put up with these videos as ‘works in progress’.
#3 I am really really proud of myself that my self-esteem has not completely caved in as a result of seeing these videos.
#4 This has been a really useful experience and has made me see that with my history of shame over my appearance, it is really worth remaking these videos after a haircut and also investing in more make up.
#5 Hey! Wouldn’t it be interesting to share all these thoughts with my roadtesters.
And so here I am...
Harriet, August 2019