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Record your initial thoughts and feelings about the course and this task. Are you feeling eager? uncertain? overwhelmed? excited? Have you done this kind of thing before? Do you already have an idea you’d like to develop for this assignment?

I joined this course (degree) because I absolutely love creativity but, I don’t get to express my creative side in my current work. I am absolutely bursting with excitement to learn new concepts, processes and tools, and most importantly interact with so many different people, and learn from them.

Getting back to ‘studies’ after thirteen years (that was when I had completed my Masters), especially having never done an online course, was a bit daunting at the start, but now I am thoroughly enjoying the course.

I am not worried about my grades or whether I will deliver the best assignment, but I am certain that I will put in my best effort and enjoy every aspect of the course - a big thank you to all teaching staff, fellow colleagues and all those assisting me gain this knowledge.

I have not worked (directly) in the digital media space; no hands-on experience at all, so I feel like a child with a brand-spanking drawing-board and artistic pens.

My goal has always been to contribute to the community, to help others, and make a difference. With digital media skills under my belt, I feel I can harness the ‘good powers’ of social media (blogs and websites) to achieve my vision.

I’m absolutely teeming with ideas to blog on (I have listed them under the 80 promo ideas), but, for this course, I have decided to provide my support to helping people suffering from ‘body image issues’ which has become a global problem.

As such, I am going to learn, explore and implement all that I am taught in this course to spread positivity, happiness, love in a very creative way.

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1. Incredible Life choices - Blog
2. Rhythms dance Troupe
3. Impacts of online social media, advertisements etc on body image that affects eating behaviour (Body image movement – Embrace)
4. What is my worth - The I weigh movement
5. How to be happy
6. Online scams – safety tips
7. Keeping at par with the rapidly growing and changing digital media
8. Explore fitness, love, and happiness
9. Impacts of facebook and instagram on friendship
10. Digital citizenship for kids
11. Digital citizenship for adults
12. Eating Healthy
13. The 5am Club
14. Yoga for a happier, healthier YOU
15. The one stop guide to affordable Entertainment around your locality
16. Online Book Club
17. Online Dance Company
18. Mona's cool restaurant
19. Moms need a breather - child care center
20. Joyful Clown service
21. Authentic Antiques dealer
22. Mama's Kitchen
23. Parramatta Spa - best massage in town
24. Healthy delicious cookies
25. The Happy Feet Dance Center
26. Mona's Coffee, Tea and Chill
27. Cupcakes and Amore
28. Readymade gift baskets
29. Indian traditional jewelry
30. Archie's Ice cream Shoppe
31. Luxurious Hair
32. Kool Martini Bar
33. Trendy Nails
34. Paintings for Home and Office
35. Evergreen Plants for Home and Office
36. Jumbo Ice creams
37. Crunch fitness program – with personal trainers who can train you in your own home
38. Wedding photographer and videographer
39. Stress Busters
40. Empowering women network
41. Customized Mugs
42. Personalized T-shirts
43. Stationary for YOU – where you can design your own stationary
44. Trendy Treadmill - latest technology, most effective treadmill
45. Dreamy music - for instant sleep
46. A machine which reminds older audience to take their medication
47. New book series on time travel adventures
48. Cute cartoons for relaxation
49. New community safe car pool service
50. Latest tech sprinklers which can be set while person is away on holiday
51. Latest tool to thread a Needle easily
52. Free second hand online bookstore
53. Herbal remedy for eczema
54. New ways to combat bullying
55. Confidence booster sessions

56. Home candle making lessons
57. Learn Pottery for relaxation
58. Better and practical school programs

59. Creative Film making

60. Practical, affordable yet trendy clothes line

61. New effective ‘Life and health’ Mobile App

62. Best automated cake decorating machine

63. Unique children’s storytelling book

64. 101 easy to make Healthy Juices and Smoothies

65. Round the clock Virtual Assistant

66. Healthy and easy school kids lunch box recipes - website

67. Get Creative – online course on ways to enhance your creativity

68. Short & Sweet - Public speaking made easy

69. How to Invest wisely- best investment guide for busy Mums

70. Ways to bring out your inner genius and quieten your inner critic - website

71. Re-defining success -website: Know your passions and pursue your desires

72. Ways to make the most of Technology – online guide for women entrepreneurs

73. Divine Living – promoting the art of happiness and being content

74. The one stop place for all holiday deals – including cheap flights and accommodation

75. The online chocolatier – how to make delicious chocolates from the comforts of your own home

76. Your online easy and cheap guide to make cute stuffed toys (with everyday scraps)

77. Who am I, the self-growth series – Ultimate guide to explore yourself to be the BEST of YOU

78. Online shopping guide – the one stop for best deals in clothing, homeware, and shoes

79. From stagnant to successful: 10 trusted ways to improve your online business

80. Laughter is the best medicine - Online magazine that tickles your funny bone and keeps you entertained

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Video starts with female narration: Body image - a global issue. Next a set of facts, on body image issue, are displayed on the screen:

91% of women hate their body;

5% of people with eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25;

More than 40% of women feel they would consider cosmetic surgery in the future.

Camera angle from the back: a woman (in her living room) switches on the television and sees advertisements of bikini clad women promoting the latest diet to lose weight in 20 days and a miracle cream to make cellulite disappear!

Next, the woman is seen in her bathroom looking at herself in the mirror and experiencing a riot of negative emotions - frustrations, body dissatisfaction, self-conscious, sad, and angry. This is followed by quick shots of woman’s daily life: woman doing the laundry, teaching her son, dressing her daughter, and working (also giving a presentation) at her office.

The day after, the woman receives an award at a work function, and she seen to be very proud of herself. She is then seen in front of a mirror looking at her reflection (Camera focus on both woman and the mirror reflection). A female narrator in the background says:

I am perfect just the way I am;

I love and appreciate my body, without which I would not have achieved the accomplishments that I have;

I am unique and beautiful inside and out;

I am proud to be plus size and I love my size, shape, with all its flaws!

Video ends with a word cloud of empowering words, followed by credits, and lastly states ‘I am beautiful’.

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What tone/s or emotion/s will you need to convey to convince your audience of your promotional message?

Body image is a serious issue, but I don’t want my message to be dark and sombre. I will introduce emotions of frustration (from watching glamourised body images); follow it with a scenario highlighting a woman’s tenacity and achievements, leading to messages evoking happiness (via images/music/background speaker), and finally end with world-wide statistics symbolising hope (you are not alone – there are many women who do NOT have the same body shapes as those of the models shown in media).

Which colours best represent these emotions? Why?

Padlet colour choice
For the Padlet (Creative journal), I have selected a background image which shows ‘perspective’; women who think they are fat are usually not, it’s their own perspective which distorts their thinking into believing that they are ugly. Since the Padlet is my creative space, my scrap-book, I want it to reflect my warm, happy, fuzzy (marshmallows in heart) personality.

Video colour choice
I want to use a variety of colours, because the video conveys a mixed bag of emotions. Bold, strong contrasting colours like black and white will introduce the body image issue; I will use shades of red to make my message exciting, while warm, happy colours like yellow will evoke a sense of positive hope in my viewers, and the use of green will harmonise near-traumatised victims of this issue.

Which fonts best represent these emotions? Why?
Most videos on the Body image topic have used clear, easy to read Sans Serif Font like Futura, Garamond, Helvetica, Gothic. I too am planning on using Sans Serif Font – Copperplate Gothic and Century Gothic, since I find them easy to read, bold, and romantic (bring out the feminine side to convey my message). I will use these fonts in a couple of word clouds depicting the emotions running through a woman when she is confronted with body-image dissatisfaction and the gratitude she experiences when she realises her self-worth.

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1.      Women don't drive

2.      Women don't drink and drive

3.      Incorrect correlation between drinks and weight

4.      Incorrect accident impact based on the number of drinks

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As this video is done in a vlogging style, viewers immediately feel that they are communicating with a friend and creating an intimate atmosphere. The camera captures the author's emotions and actions that emphasises her message.

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As a teenager, vlogger Morgan Paige was bullied by her peers. Her body was often the target of their vicious words, and as a result, she battled depression and an eating disorder for years.

Sharing her extremely personal story on a public forum wasn't an easy decision, but Morgan wanted to help other teens who faced similar struggles. She uploaded a video on YouTube titled "Body Image." Watch above.

She said:

It got to the point where I would be in my own room, alone, and I could not wear anything that wasn't baggy -- just in front of myself. I didn't want to look at my own body, my own figure, even when I was alone. Eventually it began to affect me to such a point that I realized I had to make a change...
The truth is your body is precious, and your body is gorgeous because it's a body... Communicating and living and loving, the human body is this incredible thing, and to devalue it because it's not the shape you want it to be or the color or whatever, it doesn't make sense.

Preach, Morgan.

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The Brave Body Image Message Every Teen Should Hear (VIDEO)

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As a teenager, vlogger Morgan Paige was bullied by her peers. Her body was often the target of their vicious words, and as a result, she battled depression and an eating disorder for years. Sharing her extremely personal story on a public forum wasn't an easy decision, but Morgan wanted to help other teens who faced similar struggles.

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In one sentence summarise the message of your promotion

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In one sentence summarise the message of your promotion

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We are all unique women of substance, special in our own ways, our body statistics should not affect our self-worth, confidence and esteem.

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This is a superb article that sums up irresponsible celebrity behaviour that has a damaging impact on many women especially teens and young adults.

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Instagram feeds do more damage to body image than billboards: study

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A study of 150 Australian undergraduate women has revealed they no longer care about what women look like on the cover of a magazine.

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How do you want them to feel after they’ve seen your video? 

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How do you want them to feel after they’ve seen your video? 

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With my video I aim to make my viewers feel happy, confident, worthy of themselves, and adopt a healthier, happier life choice, rather than idolising media glamourised ‘fake body images’.

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How does your target audience feel about your product before they’ve seen your video?

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How does your target audience feel about your product before they’ve seen your video?

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My target audience is female (irrespective of age) who have negative thoughts about their own bodies after watching ‘thin-idealised’ body images on media. They are sceptical that my product will make them feel any better about themselves than the content they view on various forms of media. Media provides them with unreachable targets of ‘thin, perfect’ bodies, and this causes them anxiety, body dissatisfaction and a yearning for those media promoted ‘beautiful’ bodies. My target audience is frustrated with this on-going vicious cycle of watching a constant stream of gorgeous beauties on media and their inability to reach that goal – in turn they are constantly berating themselves for not being good enough.

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How Media affects our perception of body

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How Media affects our perception of body

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Quite a candid look at how we view the images splashed on Media and then compare ourselves to those body types. I didn't quite like the example used in this video because that girl was quite slim to start with, so editing her picture to make it skinnier actually made it ugly.

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How the Media Affects Our Perception of Beauty

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This topic is quite personal to me, since I have struggled with weight issues as a teen. Unfortunately, I have looked longingly at all models, celebrities and all the perfect bodies on magazine covers, social media and movies/T.V. series, and wished that I would have a body like theirs if not as perfect as theirs.

It was by chance that I came across a talk show where Jameela Jamil presented the ‘I weigh’ movement and I realised just how silly I had been all this while to be physically, emotionally and mentally impacted by my body image. I am a unique person with so much more in me than just my body, and I want to spread this message to all those who struggle with ‘body image’ issues – we all unique and we are all special!

With my video I would like to promote the importance of a happy, healthy, purpose-filled life as opposed to stressing over ‘unrealistic, air-brushed, photoshoped’ body images that we see on media.

How did these thoughts change over the course of the assignment?
I am more than ever determined to promote my message; to be part of the movement who provide hope to millions of women around the globe. All the articles I have read, all the ads and videos I have watched, all enforce that something must be done about this issue - this must stop, girls/teens/women must be proud of their bodies and lead a healthy, happy life.

What would you do differently next time?
I will probably choose a different format for everything - the creative journal, the font styles, my theme for my product, the colours that I have selected. I would also like to spend more time researching my topic to be better prepared and encapsulate a wider range of ideas.

What did you do well?
I think for a complete newbie, I didn't do too bad in preparing the Creative Journal:
- the research work that I did;
- the beautiful/powerful videos that I found on this topic;
- my story line, though not novel, but required - it will never be enough to promote this message of 'self-love'.

I am thrilled with what I have produced - my little Picasso, though I am sure the markers will find many 'technical' issues with my work.

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This video introduces 'facts about body image issues' with soothing music that compliments the aesthetics of flowers, sugar, honey and other 'natural' ingredients. It is followed by a group of women having an around the table conversation about their personal experiences about body image issues. There are multiple snapshots of the ongoing discussion. This video helps to get multiple perspectives from different women from different walks of life that aims to help viewers identify with their own struggles.

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Beauty And Body Image | That's What She Said

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I will use a multitude of colours in my video. First off I will use Black and White contrasting bold colours to stress upon the body image issue, then I will switch to warm, happy, confident colours like yellow, green, purple and red to evoke strong positive emotions within the viewers.
For font I will use:
- Copperplate Gothic for Headings
- Century Gothic for paragraph text

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In this video, they have highlighted 'females' of all age groups (similar to my target audience). There is a bigger range and variety of 'females' who share their experiences and opinions on this matter.

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This video shows one of the effects of body image issue - Annorexia.

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75 Lb. Woman Says She Wants To Lose More Weight To Show ‘I’m One Of The Best Anorexics Out There’

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This article reports on a study conducted between participants who viewed advertisements featuring a thin-idealized woman and participants who viewed product control advertisements. The findings were that women who viewed advertisements featuring a thin-idealized woman had greater state self-objectification, weight-related appearance anxiety, negative mood, and body dissatisfaction than women who didn’t, concluding that women can feel self-objectification even when attention is not focused on their own bodies explicitly.

This information is critical to my research in that it proves that there is a strong correlation evidence

between exposure to fashion magazines and body image.

Grabe S, Ward, L. M, & Hyde J 2008, ‘The Role of the Media in Body Image Concerns among Women: A Meta-Analysis of Experimental and Correlational Studies’, The American Psychological Association, pp. 460-476.

From this meta-analysis I have gathered that the thin ideal has impacted our society such that fashion

models, cartoon characters, movie and television actresses, and pageant winners all have become increasingly thinner over the past. This report confirmed that repeated exposure to media content leads viewers to accept media portrayals as representations of reality, but media presentations of overly thin women’s bodies are out of reach to most, hence leading to dis-satisfaction with one’s own body and to behaviors aimed at meeting this ideal, behaviors such as dieting, binge eating and purging, and skipping meals.

Fardouly, J & Holland, E 2018,‘Social media is not real life: The effect of attaching disclaimer-type labels to idealized social media images on women’s body image and mood’, New Media & Society, pp. 4311-4328.

Though this report’s focus was on the use of disclaimer comments on social media, that proved to be ineffective at reducing women’s body dissatisfaction, I enjoyed reading an incident this report refers to.

In October 2015, an Australian teenager Essena O’Neill, who had been a social media star, made headlines across the globe because she quit social media. O’Neill quit social media because she felt the portrayal of herself on instagram was unreal, and this made her miserable. On quitting, she critiqued how fake, inauthentic and staged social media was, and the negative impact of society’s overemphasis on women’s appearance.

This led to public discussions on the idealized nature of social media, and the potentially damaging effects - body dissatisfaction and negative mood, of viewing such images on women’s body image.

I would like to spread O’Neill’s action in my video requesting young women to either quit social media and focus their energy on becoming women of substance or use social media just to connect with family and friends but not be impacted by all the false/unrealistic bodies portrayed in social media.

Matthews N, Lynch T, & Martins N 2016, ‘Real ideal: Investigating how ideal and hyper-ideal video game bodies affect men and women’, Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 59, pp. 155-164.

It is interesting to note that the hyper-muscular male and hyper-sexualized female characters in video games have an impact on the body-image of both men and women. I was aware of the characters depicted in video games, but with this article I learnt that the body image portrayal in this medium also impacted viewers.

Video games depict voluptuous, scantily clad women and strong, capable men that reflect masculine tastes that dominate video game content and culture. This article found that women who knew that the swimsuit models they were viewing, were digitally manipulated images, still compared themselves to those digitally altered images and had a desire to look like those hyper-idealized models, thus leading to disordered eating!

Men on the other hand, did not report body dissatisfaction when they perceived extremely muscular physiques that was not practical to attain.

Slevec, J & Tiggemann, M 2010, ‘Attitudes Toward Cosmetic Surgery in Middle-Aged Women: Body Image, Aging Anxiety, and the Media’, Psychology of Women Quarterly, USA.

From this report it is clear that cosmetic surgery (liposuction, breast augmentation, tummy tuck etc.), especially amongst middle aged women, has increased dramatically over the past decade. These days, men and women, young and old, and people of varying socio-economic statuses take cosmetic surgery as the new attractive way of body manipulation, to meet society’s unrealistic standards of beauty. Media advertising has not only popularised the unrealistic body image but also increased public awareness of cosmetic surgery and the latest advances in cosmetic surgical procedures.

Just as the continual exposure of the ‘thin’ body ideal has been internalized by many women, so has the regular exposure to cosmetic surgery in the media made it a normal procedure to achieve ‘beauty’.

With more and more aging celebrities promoting cosmetic surgery (via media) to achieve unrealistic age-related norms of appearance, middle-aged women link beauty with sexual desirability, happiness, wealth, and success that impacts their self-worth negatively.

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At first, I thought a mind-map on ‘Body Image’ (being a hot topic, that is of concern globally these days) would be easy, however, it was quite a task to detail the mind-map down to 100 ideas!

It was an interesting exercise though, a great way to explore many ideas, that I had not initially thought of, or linked to this topic, e.g. the question ‘Is body image important’ led to the realisation that yes, some companies actually hire people based on body image because it helps them to sell their products.

I did have to google my topic to come up with more mind-map ideas once I ran out of ideas, and suddenly so many ideas kept cropping up, it became an endless pool. I also viewed a few images on this topic, which have given me an idea to plan my promo clip a bit differently to what I had thought. I will now combine the thought/message/impacts of ‘Body image’ with some light take (joke/cartoon) to balance out the seriousness of this topic.

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Simple but EFFECTIVE - I love the way this video conveys the message - it's beautiful. I would like to draw upon this style of presenting the message and maintain focus on the actual message and exclude the use of excessive graphics or colour or images.

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Distortions- Beautiful & Healthy Body Image Animation

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This video captures a survey undertaken by Dove. The video is a recording of this interesting survey as it progressed along with interviews from the participants. I absolutely loved the idea of the survey and was amazed to see that pretty, 'slim' girls also felt that they were 'average'! I always thought 'slim' girls have it easy, with little or no 'worries' in this world - but this video has confirmed otherwise, and that is sad.

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"You've just no charm - you're just fat and ordinary."

This is what one French woman told another, while sitting in the middle of a café.

The comments she made were so nasty that a fellow customer intervened: "It's a little harsh what you're saying to her, isn't it?"

What she didn't know was that the two women were actresses taking part in an advert for Dove France.

The idea was to speak to a number of women and have them write down the nasty things they say to themselves - the inner monologue of criticisms about the way they look.

One of the things a woman thought about herself. (YouTube/Dove France)

These women were then invited to a café, where they could overhear two actresses using these same phrases and saying them to each other.

Hence how they came to spit phrases such as

"Your face looks like a bulldog";

"You have a big chest and really short legs"

"I wish I could see you with a normal body...at least once"

at one another. The women listening laughed in shock as they realised that their innermost thoughts were being repeated out loud.

Another image from the video. (YouTube/Dove France)

One woman said: "It's quite violent what she's saying. But yes, it's what I say to myself all day long. Now I get how violent it is."

"I hope my daughter never speaks to herself like that," another agreed.

The idea of the Dove advert is to encourage women to think 'beautiful thoughts' about themselves. It has also sparked a social media campaign called #OneBeautifulThought.

Guys! I love this! #onebeautifulthought Dove's new campaign presents a brilliant self-esteem boosting challenge http://t.co/xymUs0bKMV
- Tabata Vossen (@TabataVossen) April 6, 2015

The advert ends by asking: "When was the last beautiful thought you had about yourself?"

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'You're fat and ordinary': Dove ad reveals what women really think about themselves

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"You've just no charm - you're just fat and ordinary." This is what one French woman told another, while sitting in the middle of a café. The comments she made were so nasty that a fellow customer intervened: "It's a little harsh what you're saying to her, isn't it?"

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Another powerful movement about body image issue. Taryn is releasing a movie on this global issue and with her movement she is encouraging all women to 'embrace' their body and love (and accept) themselves for who they truly are. The video is a combination of bold typeface, strong music, interviews with a lot of emotions, facts from around the world, very colourful, and is portrayed in a way that is relatable to all those who are impacted irrespective of age and race.

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As the video is titled 'The perfect body', the video questions - what is the 'perfect body'

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I loved this video - found it extremely moving. The artist shows how she 'photoshops' (sculpts) her body image to please her followers on social media. The video uses powerful music, animation to exaggerate the 'body perfection process', however ends with her being dissatisfied with the 'perfect' body.

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Who does this product involve or affect?

Body image related issues have impacted both males and females around the world, who have reported feeling dissatisfaction about their shape, weight and individual body parts.

This is a global issue that is on the rise.

Body image is an issue about how a person perceives their body especially after watching idealised body images on different forms of media. This perception quite often lead to such people becoming preoccupied with achieving an unrealistic body shape and weight because they believe they will feel better about themselves (and more confident) if they are thinner or more muscular.

Teens and young adults (females more than males) are impacted most by the body image issue, but middle-aged women struggle with this too.

Body image distortion leads to this cohort of people feeling bad about their appearance and thereby employing destructive behaviours such as excessive exercising and disordered eating to change their appearance.

Who is my target audience? Who are you going to target with you promotional video? What are the causes?

My promotional video is targeted towards women - teens, young adults and adults. This target audience have negative thoughts about their own bodies.

Women who are impacted by media inflicted ‘thin-body image’ glamorisation, engage in eating-disorders and cosmetic surgery to attain this unrealistic body image.

With my video, I would like to encourage women to either quit social media and focus their energy on becoming women of substance or use social media just to connect with family and friends but not be impacted by all the false/unrealistic bodies portrayed in social media.

How do these people feel and why is it a problem for them?

From all the research that I have been reading and viewing, it is confirmed that women who view advertisements featuring a thin-idealized woman suffer self-objectification, weight-related appearance anxiety, negative mood, and body dissatisfaction. Even women who know that images in adverts are digitally manipulated, compare themselves to those digitally altered images and have a desire to look like those hyper-idealized models, thus leading to eating disorders and cosmetic surgeries.

With more and more aging celebrities promoting cosmetic surgery (via media) to achieve unrealistic age-related norms of appearance, middle-aged women link beauty with sexual desirability, happiness, wealth, and success and this impacts their self-worth negatively.

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I find this movement 'incredible' - so simple, yet so powerful....it is amazing how 'such a movement'has been overlooked for so long. This movement, basically opened my eyes to the 'reality' of who WE are, what WE are - how many lives we touch with our everyday activities or with our accomplishments

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Today is my 32nd birthday.

This is the best birthday I've ever had because I've woken up to thousands of women sending me pictures and messages about the things they love about their lives, and the things they have done that they are most proud of. This has been going on for days now.

I was scrolling through "explore" on Instagram (always a certified mine field for one's self esteem) and came across this disastrously damaging picture.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. A group shot of grown women with their respective weights posted across each of their bodies, and the post asking what we think of their weights and then asking its followers, "What do you weigh?"

WHO CARES? What kind of crazed toxic nonsense is this? What is this post trying to achieve other than to induce anxiety into young women about something so entirely irrelevant? What are we teaching women about our value? Can it be measured using a metric system? Why do so many posts like this exist on social media? How is anyone supposed to get through the fucking day happy with themselves when we are given such unreasonable and shallow goals to achieve, falling short of which, no matter who we are, what we do, how many lives we save, how many children we raise, how many people's lives we touch, we are not worth anything.

I snapped. I am just done. I'm so done with seeing this and letting it pass me by. It's so dangerous and disgusting. It's so belittling and abusive. We are subliminally bullied all day by the magazines, the side bar of shame, social media, and by each other. The onslaught is so aggressive that we are going to have to retaliate with 10 times the strength to undo all of the damage to the global psyche of women. So I posted this:

A small ode to the brilliant life that I am so lucky to live, that I built by myself from scratch, to the friends I am so lucky to have and to my self worth. This is how I measure myself. What I did, how I made people feel and how much I have enjoyed myself. It has taken me 10 years to get to the realisation that I am worth more than the digits on a measuring tape. And more importantly, the push back against body shaming shouldn't just be about how much we love our flaws, it should be about something that isn't really about the body at all. Self acceptance is important. But we deserve more than acceptance. Let's step as far away from the conversation about our bodies as possible and make acclaim, integrity, achievement, contribution to society and kindness: Values worth shouting about again.

I posted it on twitter, and within an hour women started sending me their own ones. There were too many to keep track of. It happened so fast. The pictures were amazing. None of them were posed and filtered, nobody was contoured to within an inch of their life, or sucking anything in. It was women living their lives, writing down all of the things they were grateful for and proud of. All of the degrees they have, the babies they made, the cancer they beat or are fighting, their families they love, the disabilities they live with or help with, the relationships they have built, the companies they started. Just women waking up and remembering that they are valuable, and they do important, difficult, incredible things. Things that are more than just achieving the perfect lip liner, losing baby weight quickly or being able to EAT PIZZA WHILST AT A LINGERIE PHOTOSHOOT!!! (WOWWEE!)

Here are some of my favourites:

Women of every size and shape and age and background sent me their declarations of self love and clapped back at the shame they have been drenched in their whole lives. We are attacked by this beast our WHOLE DAMN LIVES. Bemused parents are writing to me that social media has their 8 year olds talking about diets and what they dislike about their tiny growing bodies. We are facing an epidemic of self hatred. Instagram while sometimes an amazing way for us to share, is in many ways, hurtling us at light speed towards the demise of what the suffragettes were building.

We lack focus because we are concentrating on the wrong things. Most of the women I know wake up much earlier than men to get ready, and spend much of their time and money on complete nonsense like manicures and pedicures, hair treatments, and waxing. Women bleach their bumholes. THEY BLEACH THEIR BUMHOLES. This is how far we have gone with our pursuit of perfection, that we are no longer satisfied with the natural colour of an area almost nobody in the world will ever see. We have to be thin, but with big breasts and bottoms, gravity free, spotless, hairless, ageless, light skinned but always with a year round sun kissed glow; we must be fun and eat pizza and drink beer but also completely cellulite free and we must all have tiny noses and enormous eyes and lips but with skinny faces, but our skinny faces must never look gaunt and old.

And after all this, and after all the work we do, that we do as much of as men, ON SUBSTANTIALLY fewer calories than we probably need, we get judged more and paid less anyway.

NO. I'm sorry but at some point something has to give. We have to object. We have to do it together. Rather than just complaining about it, lets fill the void of sense with some perspective and some regard for the lives we are so lucky to live. An education is a luxury and a beautiful thing, not afforded to millions of women in the world. Bringing children into the world and raising them to be happy and healthy and kind is a great achievement, that literally builds the world. Surviving illness and war and trials of mental health makes a warrior out of you. Fighting for the rights of those who have no voice is heroic and important. Reading and writing and filling yourself with knowledge makes you so much more fun to spend the day with. Travelling and being independent and supporting yourself is the sign of a woman in control of her life.

We spend our lives in pursuit of the approval of others when we don't yet even really approve of ourselves. My opinion of me is now (and only very recently) the one that matters.

I remember being 15, miserable and so relentlessly disappointed in myself, thinking it didn't matter that I had a full academic scholarship and that I had a job and good grades, a Grade 8 in piano and I was a good kid, because my hip bones didn't jut out, I had a round face and my thighs were forever touching. I was taught nothing else mattered. And that my fat covered up my achievements. I am so, so aware of the damage the media does to a vulnerable mind, it ruined the first 20 years of my life.

I found this really sad old drawing I did of myself when I 16, with what I felt I had to look like in order to be accepted by girls at school, and society in general.

I can't sit by and read the messages of self hatred that teenage girls send me, about how they hate themselves for not looking like Victoria's Secret models. I can't watch what happened to me, happen to them.

I hereby call out every newspaper run by a man that shames women about their appearance.

I hereby call out journalists who write passive-aggressive shaming articles about weight gain and congratulatory ones about women who lose weight.

I hereby MASSIVELY call out celebrities who don't document what it takes for them to look the way they do. If you have had surgery, say something. If you have a strict diet and workout regime, say something. It is UNFEMINIST to push an image that was created in the fantasy lab of the patriarchy, essentially that of a sex doll, to other women, and pretend that it comes naturally to you, and that junk food and lying down in expensive hotel suites is what keeps you beautiful. You have a platform and have to use it responsibly.

I hereby call out the fashion industry for STILL after 10 years of being called out, perpetuating the idea that expensive clothing only looks good on stick thin, barely pubescent girls. (None of whom can afford your bloody clothes)

I hereby call out the women who troll other women online about their appearances.

I hereby call out the trolls that live in our own heads and eradicate all of our achievements and shower us in self-doubt and loathing.

In this uprising of female power we must realise we are being set absurd extra goals, thick and fast. The further we come as a gender, the more ridiculous the ideals we have to fulfil become. We are being distracted and exhausted and our eyes are being taken off the ball. Every minute you spend thinking about how thin or gorgeous you aren't, is a minute you aren't spending on growing your business or your life.

I'm not saying it's not important to watch out for your health. I'm not saying your BMI isn't something to pay attention to. I do think it's important to try to be active and put good food into your engine. But I also think the shame and feeling of failure is what drives us to the unhealthy eating habits we acquire to "comfort" us when we feel inferior and depressed. It's a catch 22.

And by all means take pride in your appearance. Enjoy your looks, and your clothes and your sex appeal, but don't make it your number one concern and selling point. It can be in your top ten, but it should never, ever define you. It isn't important. We aren't supposed to all look the same. And nothing good ever comes of self hatred. It will never further you. It will always hold you back.

Please think of the things in your life that you are proud of, that fulfil you, that make you happy and write them down somewhere, and look at that list every time you feel that you are failing, or that your jeans are tight, or you have a chubby arm in a group photo of a night out, or when you watch a video of a Hadid eating pasta.

Please remember you have every right to be here, and your life is important and it is precious, and on your death bed you aren't going to be thinking about your love handles.

I love women and we deserve so much more than this. We can do better. We have to.

We can win the revolution against shame.

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Today is my 32nd birthday. This is the best birthday I've ever had because I've woken up to thousands of women sending me pictures and messages about the things they love about their lives, and the things they have done that they are most proud of. This has been going on for days now.

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Lichtlé, M 2007, 'The effect of an advertisement’s colour on emotions evoked by attitude towards the ad.', International Journal of Advertising, pp. 37-62.

I have watched so many advertisements without realising that the choice of colour used has been selected on purpose to add weight to the advert. It is something one usually does not pay attention to, but Lichtlé, M. (2007) article has informed colour is used quite intuitively in most advertising to influence people; colour can be used as a marketing tool!

From the experiments conducted, this research found that the optimal stimulation level (OSL) influences an individual’s pleasure, arousal and attitude towards an advertisement, such that, individuals with high OSLs:

• experience more pleasure from ads whose dominant colour has a red hue, is saturated, and is bright

• are aroused or stimulated more by ads whose dominant colour is only slightly saturated

• have a favourable attitude towards an advertisement if it has a red hue, is strongly saturated.

This article has explained the concept of ‘optimal stimulation level’, that is the colour hue/saturation/value that stimulates an individual.

O'Connor, Z 2011, 'Colour Psychology and Colour Therapy: Caveat Emptor', p. 231.

O'Connor (2011) has researched and documented that colour can be used to impact different kinds of emotions, depict different kinds of behaviour, and treat various ailments.  Colour can be mingled and combined to impact human responses: behavioural, psychological, and physiological.

For instance:

Red, is a warm colour that evokes strong emotions such as anger, excitement and intensity. Though this colour represents courage and strength, it can also be related to violence and brutality.

Blue, represents cool, calm and serenity, while invoking feelings of peace, tranquility, security. It can have healing effects thus many offices have blue rooms to create a productive environment.

Green, a health-giving colour, a sign of fertility, has been seen to have therapeutic effects on trauma patients and helps in times of stress. It is a soothing colour that invokes balance, cheer, restfulness, and harmony in people.

Irankhah, P & Bekooij-Westerhout, E 2014, 'Colours and emotions in advertising: How to catch the eye and capture the heart', Utrecht, pp. 24-26

Irankhah et al. (2014), have provided some interesting examples of how colour has been used by different companies for their advertisements. Facebook and Twitter have utilised Blue, that invokes feelings of calm, happy and serenity, in their logos, while M&Ms have used brown (gives a cosy feeling) to represent the wholesomeness of their product. McDonald’s have both red and yellow to invoke feelings of excitement (red) and friendliness and happiness (yellow), while Breast Cancer Research Foundation has used pink, which is associated with feminine emotions. Though humans are genetically programmed to react to colours, they can also perceive colours based on their personal experiences and choices.

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This ad is unbelievable and unthinkable in today's mad craze about the 'thin' body ideal.

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Identify, profile and research the target audience for your promotional video:

1.      Gender: Female. From all the articles I have read, it is evident that women are more impacted by the unrealistic body image ideals popularised by media, such that women are obsessed with attaining these body images.

For instance, a study, in the article by Gordon (1990), shows that in the United States:

-          more than 50% of adult women diet; and

-          more than three fourths of the women classify themselves as “too fat” (Gordon, R. A. 1990. Anorexia and bulimia: Anatomy of a social epidemic).

The ‘Embrace’ video also provides some vital global statistics of the number of women who are unhappy with their body, and feel they are not ‘enough’ since ‘society’ (media) is insistent upon reducing a woman’s worth to just her physical looks.

2.      Age group: 16 - 45. I would like to target all women (irrespective of their age) who suffer from the delusion that media portrayed body is better than their own body. Though research has identified teens as the primary subject who experience body dissatisfaction from watching body images on media, research have also pointed out that ‘women’ in general are affected deeply by body image issue, to the extent that they are unhappy with their body and try different measures to attain ‘media portrayed’ body images.

3.      Professional status: Educated. The research articles that I have read, do not specify the education level of the women, but I would like to target the educated cohort of women for my promo video because I expect such a cohort to understand the ‘unreality’ of the air-brushed images, yet they pursue this ‘madness’ of constantly trying to ‘perfect’ (‘whatever that means’) their physical looks.

How will you capture their attention and convince them of your message?

From Knossenburg, et al. (2016) article, I understand for a video to go ‘viral’ it must have strong elements of surprise (i.e. attract the viewer’s attention, retain it) and engagement (i.e. make the viewers want to share the video).

SURPIRSE: I will start off with a series of media ‘ideal’ body images advertising ‘super-quick, easy to achieve, with 100% guaranteed results of attaining a slim body in 20 days’, to immediately capture my audience’s (women who are unhappy with their body and always yearning for a thin-model body type) attention and trigger the emotion of body-dissatisfaction, anxiety, frustration and also give hope that they can get ‘slim’ quickly if they follow that advertised diet.

RETAIN: Then I will show a woman’s true worth by following a woman’s daily life where the woman organises/manages and carries out different chores and achieves a lot such that she could be awarded the ‘super woman’ title.

ENGAGEMENT: I will use some form of animation (though, I am not sure if I can achieve the animation yet) and word clouds to show the woman’s (the heroine in my video) feelings. I will introduce dark comedy/humour in the animation (or drawings, if I can’t achieve animation) to lighten up the mood of this video. To evoke positive feelings, I will stress on the fact that we are all unique, amazing people, achieving many things in our daily lives and we should take care of our body for health reasons and not for ‘artificial’ physical looks. Finally, I will provide some statistics of how many women have model-like figures and what is the true body form of the majority, giving examples of ‘fake’ air-brushed/photoshoped celluloid images.

Knossenburg, Y, Nogueira, R, & Chimenti, P 2016, ‘Contagious content: Viral video ads identification of content characteristics that help online video advertisements go viral’, p. 453.