The Book: What It's All About
The rules of body image and beauty ideals need to be rewritten because many women do not know how to love themselves. Without proper guidance and information, there can be many difficult consequences to having a negative body image. Average Girl: A Guide to Loving Your Body is a self-help guide filled with resources that will help the reader work towards loving their body. The visual aspect, photographs of real women, illuminates the idea that it is crucial for women to see more sources of positive body image.

The Goal
The goal is to  photograph as many young women as possible wearing nothing but their skivvies. Seeing untouched, real images of women will show readers that they are not alone...that we all are uniquely Average. The images will inspire readers to embrace their bodies and the content will empower them.

Updates

• The written text is complete after many months of writing, researching and editing!
• Currently writing the book proposal in hopes of landing a literary agent and/or publishing company. If we can't make this happen in the next few months, we will be launching a kickstarter campaign to fund the release!
  
• Currently photographing young women for the book and the upcoming Love Average social media campaign (LOOKING FOR GIRLS IN THE GTA AND/OR THOSE WILLING TO TRAVEL TO MILTON, ONTARIO!)
  
• Currently deciding on which images will be kept for the book launch and which images to share for the social media campaign

A recent article written by Zawn Villines for GoodTherapy.org summarized the negative effects that facebook can have on female body image. She found that "women who were highly connected to Facebook were more likely to compare their bodies to those of other Facebook users, which increased a woman’s likelihood of experiencing poor body image and engaging in risky dieting practices."

It is hard enough with all the perfect media images of women out there and we are making it worse by presenting ourselves as perfect on social media. On one hand, we want to present our best selves, but on the other hand how does taking 3000 photos to get the right angle make sense? We do it because we have been taught to judge and compare each other, instead of supporting and caring for one another.

The other day I posted a photo of myself and a girlfriend on our boat, in bathing suits. Why did I do it? I did it because I love the photo of us, we hardly have any photos together and because it was a great day to remember. I'm four months postpartum and I am proud of what my body has gone through and I am happy with how I look (most days!). Once I posted the photo, I got messages and comments from friends telling me how great I looked for having just had a baby (I am guilty of doing this to other friends as well) and another person commented on how white I looked. Regardless of whether the comments were positive or not, this reminds me that we are constantly comparing and judging other women. We value the way women look so much and expect them to get back in to shape right after having a baby but also secretly wish that they do not. Why is that?  Perhaps, subconsciously I posted the photo to show everyone I'm doing well, or maybe I just really loved the photo of my friend and I. Maybe both.

We need to stop being so concerned with ripping apart and scrutinizing other women's bodies. Instead we need to celebrate our bodies and support the different variations of them. We need to be honest about the way we look and stop judging other women when they are being honest with their bodies. It's harder to do, than said. When we were at the beach, I saw a variety of body types and my natural reaction was to observe, survey and judge them. I tried to not to be negative, to turn off the rose coloured glasses that I have been taught by the media, to wear. Instead of thinking, "why is she wearing that," I was dreaming about photographing these lovely ladies (see The Book page for more info!) to show the world that difference needs to be embraced. We need to show young women that every body type is acceptable.

This is why facebook makes it difficult to overcoming the odds set by the media. We survey, we view, we judge others. We know we judge others so we start to self survey and present ourselves a certain way, to avoid being negatively judged ourselves. By doing this we create lies, just like the media. And then we hurt each other, instead of building each other up. This is what we need to do, this is what we need to change. The solution is to be yourself and not worry about what other people think. This is easier said than done but we need to try.

Remember to follow us on facebook for some body positivity!

"Love our Bodies, Love Ourselves!" is a movement launched by the B.C. Provincial Eating Disorders Awareness Campaign (PEDAW), coordinated by Amy Pezzente, to bring awareness to the public in preventing eating disorders and building self-esteem with a positive body image!

Check out the article Love Average wrote for this great organization here!

Tell us what you think about the subject :)

Hello my Average Girls!! I've been seriously slacking with keeping up with this blog...I can't believe it's been a month since my last post! I do apologize for that but I've been so very busy!! It's busy season at work and I've been covering for more than one person + I've been photographing like mad and volunteering with Danielle's Place Eating Disorder Center!

Even though I've been a busy girl, I am happy to announce that we have ranked Third Place in the Feminist category for the Canadian Weblog Awards!!! Woohoo! Thank you to all who have been supporting project Love Average over the last year, without you all of this could not be possible! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

I am so excited to have been a part of SLiNK magazine's The Escape Issue! Check out my article on Escaping the Male Gaze where I ponder the notion that we can escape the Male Gaze with women centered fashion...Can we? Buy SLiNK today to find out...