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Acceptance

Beautiful You Book Review: Amongst Sisters by Amanda Foxon-Hill

I’m delighted to present a book review and interview with Amanda Foxon-Hill today about her inspirational book ‘Amongst Sisters.’ This beautiful book is a true treasure and has been the perfect summer holiday reading for me throughout the festive season. ’Amongst Sisters’ is a celebration of the female form and women’s lives. Themes of beauty, confidence, love and acceptance abound in it’s colourful pages with gorgeous photographs by Lucia De Giovanni. Amanda kindly agreed to tell us a little more…

What inspired you to write ‘Amongst Sisters?‘ After working in the beauty industry (as a chemist) for the past 13 years, I have been increasingly worried about our desire to deny and wipe out anything that is unique and interesting about us, such as the odd wrinkle, scar, birthmark, the shape of eyes or nose and our skin texture. I’m also concerned that as free women with many choices and opportunities we now seem to be focusing almost totally on our looks and specifically young doll-like looks. I don’t believe that this is healthy for our self-esteem or personal growth and see it as a consequence of our fix-it, need-it-now, ‘teenager-like’ society that prefers to scoot across the surface rather than dig deep and find real treasures. I didn’t want to remain part of the problem, but still loved my job, so I wanted to write in a way that got women thinking more deeply about themselves and their identity. We should be able to feel proud of our journey and wear the marks and badges of a long and fruitful life with pride.

What are the messages you are most hoping women will take away from ‘Amongst Sisters?’

That we are all the same in as much as we all have a right to kindness and compassion and should be accepted and loved

That we need to carve out time to really talk and start meaningful conversations Amongst Sisters

That it is a sign of strength and maturity rather than weakness when we share thoughts about our deepest feelings, fears and problems

That we deserve to be healthy and that means living our lives with our eyes and minds wide open

That we should seek happiness and play That our sensuality should be owned and used wisely

Thank you Amanda. I think those take away messages are about as good as anyone could hope for when reading a book targeted directly at women. ’Amongst Sisters’ is a wonderful hard cover coffee table book that would make a truly beautiful gift for your sister, Mother or friend. It’s vibrant and positive messages from over fifty contributors are the perfect antidote for the airbrushed and glossy magazines we are bombarded with constantly, and a reminder that there are ‘reads’ out there that can become a part of our library forever and be something we pass on to younger girls in our lives we love. ’Amongst Sisters’ is available for purchase here.

Tagged as: Acceptance, Amanda Foxon-Hill, Amongst Sisters Book, Beauty, Beauty Industry, Book Review, Compassion, Confidence, Kindess, Love, Lucia De Giovanni, Reading, Real Beauty, Self Esteem, Women

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Happiness is Within

I’m delighted today to have a guest post for you by Dana from the eating disorder recovery blog Happiness is Within. Dana has used her own personal challenge of recovering from an eating disorder to become a positive body image advocate and she’s doing a great job of being so! Thanks Dana for telling us more about your story.

Hi! My name is Dana and I am the writer of Happiness is Within – a blog about my eating disorder and recovery. Eating Disorders have always been surrounded with a great deal of social stigma. It is often thought that people with eating disorders engage in behaviors to be thin out of a quest for vanity, but I have met no one for whom this has been the case. The onset of an eating disorder for every person is a very individual thing which is particular to them.

I have met some people who developed an eating disorder as a result of a societal pressure they felt to be thin. They have viewed being thin as a form of success and achievement. I have also met people who’s eating disorder had nothing to do with this issue and for them was a way of coping with difficulties in their life, or even as a result of wanting to hide away or disappear. For me, a perceived need to be thin combined with needing a method to cope with negative emotions was the combination that made up my eating disorder.

My eating disorder began as a young girl while I was at a ballet camp where my instructor told us that sugar was bad and I quickly saw that the girls who were thinner got to dance at the front of the line. By the time I was in middle school I was teased about my weight and it sent me into a destructive thinking and behavioural pattern. I both fasted and purged regularly and my weight plummeted. Even though I was clearly unwell, I was often praised for being thin and this made me me want to be thinner. It became my coping mechanism for life.

I only began my recovery as an adult a year ago and I’m pleased to say I’m at a healthy place right now. I would not consider myself fully recovered, but I now believe recovery is possible and I am working towards that. One thing that has really helped me in my recovery has been becoming pro active about my body image and being a positive body image advocate. Some of the things I have done to encourage positive body image within myself has been to find positive role models. I surfed the web for different blogs and websites that encouraged positive body image, hence finding Beautiful You! I love this blog and there has been many, many, posts that have been very helpful to myself and my own body image. Julie did a guest post at Happiness is Within and I have created a Love Your Body Movement collecting stories and inspiration from various bloggers.

I’m writing this today to bring about more awareness of eating disorders and to let people know that they can make a difference in others lives. The more people I found that were accepting of more then one body type, the more relaxed I became about being comfortable in my own skin. It helped me so much in my recovery. I’m guessing if you are a reader of Beautiful You, you are either a positive body image role model already or you are trying to be one. I want to say thank you and let you know how much of a difference you are making in this world. It may not seem like it sometimes when we open up a magazine these days, but slowly things are starting to change. Hopefully one day negative body image will be a thing of the past and we can all learn to accept our bodies whatever their shape or size.

Thank you Dana. All the very best with your continuing journey to recovery. I love your Love Your Body Movement too! What a wonderful thing you have created.