"I owe so much of my career to pasta darlings": Jessica Megan on her rejection to conform to beauty standards and why you should do the same
Body positive Model, Activist and Content Creator Jessica Megan, spoke at the CNC Vogue Teen Festival, dispelling the myths around body confidence. Alice Morey catches up with Jessica after the session about the importance of body acceptance, the role of social media and how trolling is worse than ever.
Jessica advocates for people everywhere to trust in themselves and not conform to shifting beauty standards. The fat acceptance movement is not a new phenomena and has origins rooted in the nineties. Yet, Jessica and her peers have transformed their personal struggles with body image to shed light on why we should all be kinder to our bodies and inspire the next generation to not fall foul of unrealistic beauty standards in the 21st century.
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Revealing spots, flesh, pubic hair and cellulite to her half a million Instagram followers online, Jessica is a woman on a mission to normalise the beauty of the body. In a white top with a puff-cap sleeve, she exudes confidence with an energy that is both infectious and friendly, when addressing the online participants of 15-17 year olds.
"All my success comes from carbs", this frank but honest statement is startling to hear at first but one that is necessary in dispelling the societal myths that have built up over time.
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Jessica goes on to explain how the "human brain consumes 20% of the body's energy, imagine how much of that is negative and bullying towards yourself", it is consuming and has an exhausting effect on ourselves.
Jessica frames this statistic under the context of Naomi Wolf who argues that a culture fixated on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty, but an obsession about female obedience. It is a mechanism utilised to suppress females and subdue their individual power. Rather than feeding into this narrative of suppression Jessica argues that you should "choose your body over other people's opinions of it". Opinions are fluid, fluctuating and are influenced by many factors outside of our control.
By looking inward and finding "the worth within yourself", is where true body confidence will come from. "It is so important to me to speak to young women about this, as they have to learn this in their formative years otherwise the problems follow you into adulthood", "body image and self esteem issues tend to creep in at their heaviest when you're in your teens and this is especially where my body issues came from".
I was at war with my body as I was growing from a child into a woman, you have all these changes happening and you are battling with yourself in many ways, Jessica explained. "You're growing body hair, you are starting periods, people are starting to sexualise your body and this can be an overwhelming time to navigate".
Jessica's own eureka moment, that sparked a five year journey towards true body love "came from reading and a knowledge that diet culture is worth two billion pounds in the UK". Followed by a realisation that "I wasn't happy because I was thin, I was happy because I was being accepted", in life "we do not bully a living thing the way we do our bodies", the power that comes from transforming this internal narrative to one of love and appreciation is achieved through acceptance.
However, despite being at the forefront of this movement Jessica too has down days, "but on those days I just choose to exist" and let the feelings pass and just be. Jessica explained "the pandemic made me a bit more vulnerable and a bit less optimistic all the time, we feel a pressure to feel constant happiness towards our bodies. I would previously keep this to myself, however if I keep this image up then it is not an authentic representation of me. I used to have horrendous body image, I have days where I am bloated or tired and it will just spiral. I do feel that and people can be quite cynical online if you don't uphold the image of you that you had when they started following you, they will just unfollow you".
The greatest tool used by Jessica is social media, her top viewed video to date is that of her in a baby pink lingerie set, running and skipping over Tower Bridge, in London towards an awaiting double decker bus. To date the reel has received 39.7 thousand likes. This content breaks the mainstream representation of bodies that fails to represent the diversification of bodies.
Jessica explains the value of social media in contributing to democratising the imagery which people see. Yet, despite the shift and continued support of the conversation "trolling has got worse", the way algorithms work on Tik Tok compared to Instagram is very different. "Instagram will show you comments of people that actually like and actively support you mostly and Tik Tok is a wild west thing. With the division of groups left and right it has become worse as there is a lot of anger online".
"There is no empathy where profit is involved, they hook people young so that they are invested later in life. You are hearing it as a to-do list as here is everything that is wrong with your body and what you need to change. It is exhausting". Jessica went on to explain the significance of creating your own self-worth as a necessity, otherwise "you will find yourself in toxic relationships, proper confidence comes from drawing strict boundaries telling people no and following your gut instinct". Boundaries act as the first line of defense, an innate internal compass to guide your decisions and choices.
This allowed Jessica to speak about her top tips and advice for the students tuning into the Vogue Teen Festival:
Unfollow people who make you feel bad, if you are spending that much time online make sure it is enriching and bringing value into your day. Be aware of the algorithms of the content you are engaging with. By liking and continuing to follow this content, you are sending a message to social media sites that you would like to see more of this type of content, which could be damaging in creating a healthier relationship with your body.
Question what you're seeing, question beauty ideals 'thinness' is not necessarily healthier or happier.
You will have an off day and in those moments it's okay to not feel okay, but in time you will come to a place of neutrality with your body.
Despite the amount of information provided by the talk you left feeling refreshed and an optimism for the future. Jessica is realistic with her aims "I need to be honest with people about how rocky the terrain of coming to love yourself is. My main focus is to get people if they can't feel good about themselves right now, I want them to at least understand the framework of why they don't feel good about it. To look at it analytically rather than emotionally. Let's critically understand why you think you are the most disgusting person, rather than indulge in it emotionally. What evidence is there to suggest this is true? Question it rather than accepting it?".
Most importantly is an understanding that "everyone is just doing their best, people will always feel down on themselves as we have been brought up in a patriarchal, capitalist society that profits off of our insecurities. So, it is going to take a lot to dismantle this. I am not the torchbearer, I am just a brick in a wall full of people working on this". Speaking with Jessica you feel part of a movement that "we are all part of this network that can create a more supportive place for people to grow up and actually like themselves.
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