Body Gossip is an

organisation An organization or organisation ( Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is an entity—such as a company, or corporation or an institution ( formal organization), or an association—comprising one or more people and having a pa ...

founded in 2006 and run by Ruth Rogers and Natasha Devon which campaigns on

body image Body image is a person's thoughts, feelings and perception of the aesthetics or sexual attractiveness of their own body. The concept of body image is used in several disciplines, including neuroscience, psychology, medicine, psychiatry, psycho ...

issues, regardless of shape, size, race,

gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...

or age. Body Gossip's Gossip School body image education programme won the 2011-12 'Business hero - Heroic SME' award. Between them, Body Gossip and

The Self-Esteem Team The Self-Esteem Team is a British organisation which delivers workshops in schools and colleges on mental health, LGBT, body image and Test anxiety, exam stress. It was formed in 2014 by Nadia Mendoza, Grace Barrett, and Natasha Devon. Members ...

, also founded by Devon, visit three schools each week and have provided classes to over 50,000 teenagers; they also provide sessions for parents and teachers.

History

In 2012, ''Body Gossip: The Book'' was published by Rickshaw Publishing which was an anthology of over 300 short pieces from celebrities and others relating to body image issues. It was co-authored by the organisation's co-founders, Rogers and Devon, together with Gok Wan. Body Gossip has also organised performances of sketches and monologues on a wide range of body image issues, including dermatillomania. On 28 November 2012, students from the Manor School in

Arbury Arbury is a suburb and electoral ward in Cambridge, England. As of the 2021 UK census, the ward had a population of 9,883 people. History The area has been occupied since at least Roman times. In the 1950s, stone coffins from the 2nd century ...

, Cambridge performed in front of the

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of Royal family, royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobi ...

and

Duchess Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they a ...

of Cambridge in an event organised by the Body Gossip education programme. Rogers' and Devon's work with Body Gossip won them the 'Ultimate Campaigners' award at the UK edition of ''

Cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Internationalism * World citizen, one who eschews traditional geopolitical divisions derived from national citizenship * Cosmopolitanism, the idea that all of humanity belongs to a single moral community * Cosmopolitan ...

s Ultimate Women of the Year Awards 2012. In 2013, Body Gossip organised a

flash mob A flash mob (or flashmob) is a group of people that assembles suddenly in a public place, performs for a brief time, then quickly disperses, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, and/or artistic expression. Flash mobs may be organize ...

on the

South Bank The South Bank is an entertainment and commercial area on the south bank of the River Thames, in the London Borough of Lambeth, central London, England. The South Bank is not formally defined, but is generally understood to be situated betwe ...

in London. Participants were given paper hearts on which they were asked to write what they loved about their body; they then displayed the hearts simultaneously at 1 p.m. Ruth Rogers said of the event: "Too many people don't have anything that they love about their bodies, and we thought we should try to encourage them to really look at themselves and go 'you're gorgeous'. We're bombarded every single day with negative imagery and unattainable perfection. No matter what you feel that you should look like, you look like you, and you can be the best version of you. You're your own brand of gorgeous." In the same year, writer Jane Martinson noted in a blog for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'': "Statistics from campaigners Body Gossip suggest one in 10 young people will develop an eating disorder before they reach the age of 25 (with 1.6 million currently officially diagnosed in the UK ); three children in a typical British classroom are self-harming and 30 per cent of boys and 70 per cent of girls aged 11-19 cite their relationship with their body their number one worry." Body Gossip was part of an all-day event in London held to celebrate the 2013 United Nations International Day of the Girl; the organisation provided theatre and film performances based on stories submitted by members of the public.

References

{{Reflist

External links

BodyGossip Website
Fashion organizations