“Bigger Bodies Aren’t ‘Before’ Bodies”: Emma Tamsin Hill on Body Confidence, Fitness & Self-Love

I don't know how we got back here to where I feel like it's like when I was growing up in the 90s and it was like heroin chic and being stick thin and size zero or undersized zero was the thing that everyone was trying to aspire to and get to.

And I really felt like we had such growth with kind of the body positivity movement and just things being more acceptable and women not aspiring to be thin and skinny anymore.

And I feel like somehow so quickly we seem to have done like a little bit of a 360.

And there is this, you know, kind of GLP-1 craze at the moment.

There's lots of conversations around drugs like Ozempic and Manjaro.

How do you think that all of this is changing the way that we talk about, I guess, like weight and health as well? Because, yeah, I guess the two things are different again, aren't they?

No, massively.

I think like...

I, there's two sides of the coin when it comes to the GLP-1s and medicated weight loss, because I think for some people it can be life changing.

It can be amazing for them if they felt debilitated by their weight and it helps them to lose some weight, then that's amazing for them for health reasons.

The issue that I find with it is a lot of people are taking them now because they want to look a certain way, like they want to be thin.

instead of I want to better my health I want to be able to go on a run I want to be able to play with my kids whatever it might be the reasons that you want to lose weight I just think a lot of people are doing it solely for aesthetic purposes that's the part that I think is a bit scary and that's where I feel like it's turned in our society because obviously like you said we did have this big body positivity movement where all sizes were embraced and bigger women were being celebrated and you know like it's come a long way from like you said in the 90s heroin chic And we're sort of going back there again.

But I feel like, like with most things, I've spoke about this on my social media platforms, body types and how we look as women are always going to be trends.

Like, you know, it's the same, the same sort of trends don't really go on for men.

But for women, there's always a different body type trend.

And that's why I feel like you should be rooted in loving who you are as a person and finding what works for you and how you want to look, not because of how society is going to view you or people are going to find you attractive or people are going to compliment you.

I feel like you need to find what works for you, how what makes you feel good.

and then stick to that.

And then you won't really be as affected by all these trends.

I mean, I think it's hard not to be affected by these trends, even if you're a really stable person and you love who you are.

When you see all this stuff going on outside in society, it's like, oh, gosh, do I need to lose weight? Do I need to look a certain way? But I think it's worth just staying true to yourself and figuring that out within yourself.

Because I think a lot of people, they let society tell them this is how you should be.

But instead of how I think it's worth sitting with yourself and thinking, no, how do I want to be? What works for me? What makes me feel good? And sticking to that rather than letting someone tell you you need to look like this.

Yeah, I think it's taken me years and years to get to a place where now seeing all of this stuff about, you know, kind of skinny this and skinny that I'm indifferent to it.

I genuinely am.