“I ONLY HAVE ONE LIFE & ONE BODY, SO I MAY AS WELL EMBRACE IT”
talking body confdence with real women
HOW TO TALK SELFIE FILTERS with your tweens & teens
“WHO ARE WE TO DENY SOMEBODY THE CHANCE TO Express Themselves?”
why Meta agreed to change their guidelines
As the tribe continues to grow, with a love for the ethos of “Be Bold Be You” we continue to extend our community outreach even further, this time with the first edition of the “BOLD” magazine.
“Be Bold Be You” is so much more than “just” a photo shoot. We don’t work with professional models, we only work with real women and this edition is here to show you just how we use this popular Oscar Wilde quote in our every day, working, lives.
Enjoy exclusive interviews with three of the Be Bold Be You tribe who have embraced a photo shoot at our studio, Studio 1825 in Belper.
Also learn how to approach important, and sometimes sensitive, subjects of talking about the use of filters on photographs. Did you know, for example, over 40% of imagery on social media isn’t recognised as having a filter on? This leads to lower self esteem as expectations of self gain unrealistic goals and, as a result, confidence just simply disappears the more we monotonously scroll on our devices, these days. And then, of course, there’s the important aspect of self care – it’s not selfish, it’s essential!
We’re thrilled, and grateful, to be welcoming our first guest writer –Becky Brown from Simplicib – on
how to achieve healthy, and fast, breakfasts every morning so you feel energized and ready for the day ahead.
Whether you’ve heard Kirsty talking on Radio Derby (usually with Ian Skye!), come across our #uckthefilter campaign, read our research report requested as part of the Houses of Parliament’s Health & Social Committee’s call for evidence on “The impact of body image on mental and physical health” or are just getting to know us for the first time we want you to know that everyone is welcome at Be Bold Be You.
As Oscar once said, “Be bold, be you. Everyone else is already taken.”
James & Kirsty
We hope that this magazine inspires you to join the tribe and feel proud of who you are.JOIN THE TRIBE ON FACEBOOK beboldbeyouuk
The term is used in the USA to describe the action of an individual asking for a cosmetic procedure based on a look created by a photo flter added to their own face.
There is an increasing mountain of research quantifying that these filters are detrimental to an individual’s wellbeing so much so much so that Kirsty Corbett, of Be Bold Be You Photography in Belper, was asked to provide evidence by the House of Commons on the subject of the use of photographs & videos on social media.
We’ve put together three key ways you can interact with your teen & tween, on the subject of filters, to encourage healthy conversations & debates on this subject.
We all know that receiving a compliment on how we look can create a little “feel good” moment during our day!
The use of language with young people is really important, though. Instead of saying “I like your hair” try a conversation starter such as “have you done your hair differently, today?” and when they shrug their shoulders or say “no” add to this with a positive “it’s looking really good, today”.
This trick is all about adding emphasis to the area being complimented as opposed to saying “your hair is nice.
Taking photos together doesn’t mean you both have to be in the photo at the same time! Of course, you could take a shot together but you can also take it turns to take photos of each other.
If you take a photo of your child, particulary teens, make sure you ask them first. It may feel pedantic and you may have the gut reaction of thinking “but it’s my child” however it put it will demonstrate your respect for them, their body and their personal space.
You could simply say “can I take your photo?” but this doesn’t always go down well with more shy and/or introvert personalities. There are softer ways of approaching this key question. “Can I have a photo of you / us / you & your brother for the album?”
This isn’t strictly filtered related but I think it is a really important point! There are so many ways social media can introduce us to new and exciting things. There are also ways in which social media can create opportunities to temporarily post or permanently archive our, or other people’s, posts so it’s important to stay mindful of what certain phrases mean when using social media.
For example, on Instagram, did you know that “STORIES” disappear from the app after 24 hours, unless your teen has enabled archiving, which makes their expired stories available only to them. Your teen can share them in their Stories Highlights.
It’s also important to be mindful that anyone who can view your stories can screenshot them, making them permanent, somewhere.
Did you know that there is a genuine medical condition
TOP TIPS
One of the Be Bold Be You top tips, for anybody visiting our studio, is to make sure you’ve had breakfast before you arrive at the studio.
This is to ensure you’ve got the energy needed for your photo shoot and to also encourage you to take some time for you. To help, Becky Brown, founder of Simplicib, has put together a series of ideas to help you look after yourself on a morning.
Recent studies have found that 52% of people skip breakfast.
Other studies show that 5 in 10 adults rely on high sugar content drinks to keep energy levels up. Skipping breakfast can lead to the awful afternoon slump, lacking in key nutrients like calcium and vitamin C, weight gain, high blood pressure and diabetes to name a few.
So, way are so many of us skipping breakfast?
Typically, we are ‘too busy’ in the morning to make breakfast and consume it. Morning’s especially for parents is a scramble to get ready and get out of the door. So, I have produced some easy and convenient
Over Night Oats – these are so convenient. You can prepare on a Sunday and there is no cooking required. You could soak in separate jars/containers, so it is a case of grab in the morning and eat when you are at work.
Mix the oats and milk and soak in the fridge for at least 2 hours. You can make this vegan by using oat or almond milk. When you consume you could be creative and add chia seeds, yoghurt, or berries.
Avocado on toast – again amazingly simple and easy. Simply toast your bread (wholemeal or grain loaf is the best) and spread with avocado instead of butter/spread.
breakfasts for you to enjoy…
First though, what foods are important for a good breakfast that will keep the energy levels up?
BANANAS
They contain fibre and are a slow releasing carb to provide you with energy needed until your next meal/ snack.
AVOCADO
These are a great replacement for butter/spread and are high in vitamin E.
EGGS
These are a major source of protein, vitamins, minerals, rich in iron and low in calories.
OATS
They are a high source of important vitamins, minerals, fibre and antioxidants.
Smoothie – Simply blend fruit with cow, almond or oat milk and your good to go. You could pour in a flask and have on your way to do the school run for example.
Even easier is to use frozen berries. Be careful not to use too many berries as they are high in sugar. My smoothie is banana, oat milk and blueberries.
Ham and eggs – If your having gammon for your Sunday roast save some and place in the fridge, in the morning toast a bagel or muffin, top with your left-over gammon and add a poached egg on top.
Baked Omelette – If you have veg/meat left over from a meal then place in a bowl and add eggs, mix, cover and leave in the fridge overnight.
In the morning, melt some butter in a pan, add your mixture from the night before, sprinkle with cheese then bake in the oven at 200deg C for 20 minutes. In this time, you can have your shower, get the kids teeth brushed etc.
Finally, if time really is stretched, did you know that you can freeze omelettes so you could cook in batch, wrap, and freeze then simply defrost when you are ready to eat?
www.simplicib.co.uk
This Derbyshire based, independent, company works with both families and businesses to ensure that everyone - from children to employees - are able to stay motivated and full of nutrition in order to achieve their very best.
If you’d like more information on how Becky can help you, contact her on:
Social Media: @SimpliciB
Email: Rebecca-brown@virginmedia.com Mobile: 07542829039
Some quick breakfast ideas to keep you going throughout the day…
In 2021 Co-founder of Be Bold Be You, Kirsty Corbett, hit BBC national headlines after the social media giant, Meta, agreed to review their guidelines after an image of a woman with a scar from a single mastectomy on show was branded sexually explicit on their Facebook platform.
“It’s erotic, maybe a little bit sexy, but not pornographic.” Explains Alison Walker, who opted to have her ovaries removed as well as a double mastectomy after finding out she had the BRCA 2 gene.
Alison, from Derby, said: “It was a chance to embrace that part of my life which I was never going to see again.” Following her surgery, Alison chose to return to Be Bold Be You
and have a second photoshoot.
“I can look at those photographs and I can embrace the person that I am.”
“The surgery I had was life changing”, explained mum of one Alison. “I did think I would be disappointed with my body after the surgery and I’m not. I embrace the scars because they are a part of who I am now”.
“The genre of boudoir photography is very much about the outfits, about the lingerie and about embracing the skin that you’re in” explains co-founder Kirsty.
“We can have everybody from cancer survivors through to domestic abuse survivors to body dysmorphia.”
“Be Bold Be You is so much more than just a photoshoot”. She went on to say.
The photo in question, which saw Meta put the image in the same category as porn, The image in question was of a parent, in her mid-30’s, with a single mastectomy scar on show following surgery for breast cancer taken back in 2020.
“There was no nipple on show because there wasn’t one to show” explained Kirsty “Who are we to deny somebody the chance to express themselves?”
“If there’s something I don’t like on social media I just unfollow the page” explained Alison. “They need people in the background to ask why it’s not alright… Speak to the individuals and tell them but listen to their sides of the stories as well.”
With the help of the BBC, Be Bold Be You managed to secure a statement from Facebook that read “Our nudity policies have become more nuanced over time.
We understand that nudity can be shared for a variety of reasons…
including as a form of protest, to raise awareness about a cause or for educational or medical reasons. We typically removed adult nudity and sexual activity because some people in this community may be sensitive to this type of content.
We do sometimes make mistakes when reviewing content, which is why we give people the opportunity to appeal our decisions.”
Although I don’t feel there has been a change, yet, we’ve been able to highlight the stories and journeys of real people and that is at the heart of what we do, through our work, at Be Bold Be You.
(The photoshoot) made me feel beautiful and it gave me confdence that I never thought I had.
Two years on, Kirsty at Be Bold Be You is still determined to keep Meta to their word. “It’s a statement that I keep reminding Facebook of.
New chapters deserve to be celebrated. “ “
People often explain self-love as though it is a natural instinct and we should all know exactly what to do when our bodies need a little more care and attention than usual.
“Just focus on yourself more” has become a cringeworthy, dreaded phrase that no one wishes to hear when they’re looking for advice. That’s because the real question is how.
We don’t really need to be told to love ourselves more, because we know that, but we need advice on how to do it.
Social media influencers will share their self-care routines as if all their products are accessible. So whilst they’re selling you their partnership deals with a flashy smile and a screen full of inspirational quotes, everyone else is still left on the elusive “how?” question.
When positivity is forced onto us like this, it can often lead to a sense of guilt that you’re not a ball of happy-golucky sunshine 24/7, which is where the #uckthefilter campaign and the ethos of Be Bold Be You comes in.
Here, we are advocates of people’s stories, voices and experiences. UK society now seems to understand that we can’t feel happy all of the time, and Be Bold Be You meets so many who want to learn how to practice self care but aren’t sure how to.
Whether you are prone to down days, stress too often, have experienced something that led to trauma, or are just simply trying to find the new you, we hear you.
Here, at Be Bold Be You, we don’t work with professional models - we work with real women. The three stories you’re about to read about here are from women based right here, in the Midlands. It just shows that with a little bit of confidence, and a dollop of self care you can feel on top of your own world.
Jenny Bagworth was on the hunt for a true sense of self-love and a way to appreciate her new body, after having two beautiful children, when she stumbled across Be Bold, Be You through a social media post.
Risqué lingerie shoots never crossed her mind when she thought of ways that she could learn to appreciate herself and life more, until she met Kirsty and James.
Jenny recalls being incredibly nervous for her first shoot, back in March of 2021, but still she came and gave it her all with the help of the BBBY team making her feel right at home.
She unpacked her bag revealing her killer pair of kicks for the shoot. If you were thinking heels, you’d be dead wrong.
No heels for our Jenny, only the most rocking pair of trainers which were a true reflection of her taste and style.
This is exactly what self-love is about.
Jenny had chosen to attend a Be Bold, Be You photoshoot after the COVID-19 lockdown left a looming sense of what we like to call existential-time anxiety.
It’s that overbearing feeling that you’re not fulfilling your life and you only have limited time to do it.
After Jenny experienced this during the lockdown, it was decided that she had to start taking life by the horns and directing her own path.
This is not the first challenge Jenny has had to face. One of the things that makes this woman so strong and such an inspiration was her ability to overcome being diagnosed with postnatal depression.
Shortly after having her children, Jenny experienced a life altering barricade and had to quickly learn how to deal with her own mental state as well as taking care of her kids.
Whilst she was struggling, Jenny learnt that she couldn’t let her mental health issues define the strong woman that she is which helped direct her towards the path of self growth.
A beautiful moment that Jenny was able to share with us was how she felt after the photoshoot. She reminisces on how it felt like she had experienced a new side to herself. Her husband even noticed how happy she was after she came home, leaving the studio with an ear-to-ear smile.
The beautiful photos that Jenny took now hang proudly in her bedroom as a mural of what she has and can accomplish.
Now for self-care, Jenny journals every night during her downtime and draws the most amazing sketches, (including her own tattoo!).
She would absolutely recommend taking a photoshoot session with Kirsty and James, and that she would love to do another shoot soon.
Of course I was scared to strip down to my underwear in front of people I’d never met
I only have one life and one body so I may as well embrace what I do have
A woman in search of confdence, Steph Lovely recalls the nervously exciting, (or nervouscited as she calls it), day she had at the Be Bold, Be You studio.
It was a haven where she was able to express her true self, with an abundance of corsets and a whole load of black to make her feel truly “sexy”.
“I’ve always been quite gothic, but never had the chance to express it when I was younger because my parents thought it was just a phase”
Now an adult and able to design her own path, Steph wears her gothic looks with pride, and especially wanted to express that in her boudoir shoot at the studio.
When it came to stylistic choices, Steph wanted to wear her Lord Of The Rings and Jurassic Park tattoos loud and proud, accompanied by the most gorgeous corsets and fabulous Game Of Thrones necklace to curate a true representation of herself.
Embrace them!
Not only is this woman a fantastic role model for harbouring confidence, but she also is a perfect example of a dedicated soul.
Steph has worked in the health care system since the height of the pandemic in 2020.
Despite having to experience the awful side to being a carer, she loves her job and couldn’t imagine herself in a different occupation now.
After her shifts, Steph comes home to look after her daughter, eventually hoping to find some time for herself to game, but she is still on the hunt for that perfect balance between work and her personal life.
When that imbalance becomes a little too much, Steph turns to the photos from her shoot, filled with pride, and is able to tell herself that she is still
that strong, amazing woman she was on that day.
Now able to find that confidence within herself, Steph explained that it came from focussing on the positives instead of the negatives.
During summer of last year, Steph was able to overcome her body negative thoughts and wear clothes that she’d never worn before because she was proud of the body that she had through embracing the bits that she loved most about herself.
Hiding behind filters and editing techniques to change your appearance on social media has controlled parts of Steph’s life that she now has back.
No longer is she trying to keep up with the trends and fads because they simply are just not her. She has learnt that self love comes from accepting yourself for who you truly are.
“It’s one of the reasons I got my chest tattooed and wore a corset at my shoot"
It’s my body if you don’t like it don’t look at it!
whoEmbrace you are.
DON’T
YOU TO BE.
You are your own person and appreciate what you’ve got because some people don’t have that.
This strong-willed, determined woman told us how she turned her life around from rock bottom to something she now is proud to live.
Through the last 10 years of Jo’s relationship with her husband, he suffered physical ailments that left their relationship restricting and restraining.
After her husband went in for a routine procedure at the hospital, following what Jo thought was a heart attack, she was beyond devastated to find out that he had not made it through.
I was quite irate, because you’re asking the consultant if he is dead but they’re just stood there not able to even look at you to tell you he is.
6 months prior to the excruciating loss of her husband, Jo had also lost her father and was having to now juggle the bereavement of losing two family members so close together.
Following this, she then lost an uncle 2 months later, and her Mother-in-Law 4 months after that which led to what Jo described as 15 months of sheer trauma.
Among this, Jo was fight the HS2 trainline through the Government to prevent her home from being compulsory purchased.
It’s absolutely gobsmacking that someone can experience all of this in such a short amount of time and come out of it an amazingly strong and charismatic woman, but that’s what Jo did. Now being a widow of 4-and-ahalf years, she “discovered herself”.
Jo recalls how she saw an advertisement for Be Bold, Be You and after receiving a call back from Kirsty from a competition Jo had entered, she was all set for her photoshoot.
It helped me to discover you can climb over this mountain of torment, horror, trauma, disaster to be that person who you are again.
“
By Kirsten Penk
WHEN WE THINK ABOUT A WOMAN WHO CAN STARE THE DEVIL IN THE FACE AND SAY “F… YOU!”, JO LAST IS WHO WE MEAN.
She proudly reminisces on the amazing day she had at the studio and how her mural hangs pridefully on her bedroom wall. Never did she expect a boudoir shoot could be a saviour in all of the madness.
The shoot day was a place where she could have day of from all of her worries and stresses and be exactly who you want. Jo is now a proud promoter of Be Bold, Be You to all of her friends, explaining how it is the perfect pamper day if you’re feeling down or feeling blue.
In preparation for the shoot, Jo had purchased some lingerie that she knew would make her feel sexy, picked up some props from a charity
This communication was also what got Jo through the pandemic. The lockdowns were isolating for everyone, and we all know now how lonely it can be on your own - but the cul-de-sac that Jo lives on all came together during this time to remind each other about the joy of community.
shop, she had her hair and makeup done (which she said was not like her at all) and finally was able to show herself off in front of the camera as the incredible woman she is.
Even now, Jo still wears the lingerie she bought for the shoot as a special reminder, but she finds the most confidence in knowing its only her that’s aware she’s wearing them - its all for her.
Growing up, Jo was exposed to mental illness through her dad suffering with bipolar, which scares her every now and then with the fear she’ll end up the same.
But when she’s experiences one of her darker days, she likes to go on walks, meet with her friends for a coffee or even chat with her friends on the phone to remind herself she is still the strong and independent woman she has always been, as well as looking through her Be Bold, Be You photos!
Now, Jo knows how to look after herself and her wellbeing, she often finds herself baking, talking to friends and going out on walks, especially with her two youngest grandchildren whom she adores.
This is Jo’s main message to anyone who may be struggling currently. You don’t need to do it all in one day, just wash that one pot today, go out for a walk, talk to that friend, you’ll get through it in your own time because self-care is productive.
Having gone through all the bereavements and hitting rock bottom the Christmas before the shoots and I knew I needed something just for me to feel beautiful I look at those photos every morning.
