When Anita Roddick founded The Body Shop, she believed passionately that beauty is an active, outward expression of everything you like about yourself. Trusting in the importance of self-esteem, Anita spearheaded the conversation back in 1997 and launched a self-esteem and body positivity campaign featuring a generously proportioned doll, Ruby, with the slogan: There are 3 billion women who don’t look like supermodels and only 8 who do. The Body Shop was the first beauty company to talk about self-esteem and importantly, the link between personal wellbeing and collective wellbeing.
Fast forward to today, the body positivity movement has gained much traction. Yet we live in a troubled and turbulent world, where inequalities continue to widen. The Body Shop believes the next frontier in creating positive impact in the world is increasing self-love.
Echoing this sentiment, Vice President Beauty Division, Alshaya Group, Rebecca Jobo said “As an activist brand, The Body Shop’s mission is to fight for a fairer and more beautiful world. In order to create a positive change in the world, it is focused on creating positive change. In a society that promotes self-doubt and insecurity, The Body Shop calls for people to rise up with self-love. It’s exciting to embark on this journey to drive change individually, in the beauty industry and beyond.”
The Body Shop self-love expert, The Millennial Therapist, Sara Kuburic also commented, “Self-love is many things, but it starts with the recognition and appreciation of our inner worth and value. It gives us permission to be our authentic selves. Self-love is the act of using our voice and standing up for what we believe in. It is the act of creating change and of surrounding ourselves with people who support our journey.”
This is why The Body Shop aims to inspire 1 million acts of self-love in 1 year, to create more love and positive change in the world. It doesn’t matter how big or small, every act can lead to big change. Tips on acts of self-love will be shared on the online self-love hub and
The Body Shop Kuwait social media channels. To raise awareness of self-love, the company is working with ‘Leading Lights’ – changemakers and cultural ambassadors that are beacons of self-love and help inspire others on their journey.
In the Middle East, The Body Shop is working with Zainab Al-Eqabi, Motivational Speaker and Para-Athlete. Zainab AlEqabi is truly an inspiration. She has overcome personal challenges and champions self-acceptance. Her traumatic experience of losing her left leg at age seven in a bomb explosion in Baghdad, made her realize that she is still blessed with other abilities in the face of what she has lost!
Through her involvement in several sports events and charitable initiatives, she is sending a message to the world that “life doesn’t stop when you have a disability”. When asked to define the concept of self-love, she said, Self-love is being confident in your own skin, in your whole being. Loving, caring and showing respect to who you really are.” We asked Zainab a few more questions about her story and her involvement with the campaign. Here’s what she had to say:
What does self-love mean to you?
Self-love is loving who you are! Having a wonderful relationship with your true self. It’s having a deep awareness of your strengths and imperfections, loving and respecting every bit of it! Self-love empowers us and makes us unbreakable.
Why is self-love a journey?
Every stage of our lives requires a different kind of awareness. We might be facing different types of challenges and therefore, our reactions towards these challenges and towards ourselves may differ. Self-love is a journey, and we keep on learning and improving along the way. No matter what we are going through, we should constantly work on our relationship with ourselves.
How do you help others self-love?
I should go back in time and tell you more about the reason why I started sharing my story on social media. I couldn’t see a lot of self-love in people who are living with physical challenges and it was really upsetting me. I also realized that there was a lack of understanding from society towards people with disabilities.
I wanted to find a way to make a positive change. Upon sharing my story and throughout the years, I was so happy to see more people joining in and sharing their stories. Through this we have managed to spread collective self-love, it is quite infectious.
So, how powerful is collective self-love?
It is so strong I can’t even describe its magnitude! Sometimes we might think that we are alone in facing whatever challenge we are going through in the moment, but once we share our story, we realize that we are definitely not alone! By opening up, we become stronger and we empower each other… and eventually, build a stronger, loving community!
Follow the campaign online by following @TheBodyShopKuwait on Instagram and Facebook, or shop online at www.thebodyshop.com.kw.
