We were pleased to see the formation of an All-Party Parliamentary Group for Body Confidence in the UK and provided testimony at the Diet and Cosmetic Industry hearings. We continue to be active in sharing our expertise and experiences with MPs, most recently submitting recommendations to the Women and Equalities Committee enquiry ‘Changing the perfect picture: an enquiry into body image’, focusing primarily on the effects of food labelling and weighing children in schools. More information can be found about this on our #PlayNotWeigh campaign page.

Our Ditching Dieting Campaign was launched in 2012 with a protest outside parliament. It aims to expose the role of the diet industry in de-stabalising our eating habits, and promote safe and open discussion about body image.

Victoria is an English beauty photographer based in Manchester. She joined AnyBody UK in 2013 originally working on visuals and social media content, and eventually moved on to giving workshops and speaking on panels across the UK. Most recently she has been predominantly working at an international level, meeting with various representatives from across the globe and project managing campaigns such as the successful Surgery Is Not A Game. This led to the removal of several apps that promoted plastic surgery to children, and the creation of a new policy for Apple to protect users from such content. She is passionate about combining art & activism, and is always looking for ways to push the beauty industry on a more body inclusive journey from the inside.

Rebecca joined AnyBody UK in 2016, starting as a social media intern and became Treasurer and Trustee in 2018. She is passionate about exposing anti-fat culture and the companies that profit from exploiting our insecurities, and providing education around the harmful effects of pushing diets and body ideals onto children and young people.

Rebecca lives in London with her two boys and two cats.

Dinah joined AnyBody UK in 2016 when she became increasingly concerned about weight stigma while working as a midwife. She went on to work with AnyBody founder Susie Orbach and Holli Rubin on a series of workshops focussing on body image for midwives and other early years professionals.

In 2017 and 2019, she created and ran ‘Bodykind Festival’, which was the world’s first ever festival dedicated to body acceptance. She continues to get excited by a sense of wonder in our bodies.

Sharon Haywood (MSc) is a body image researcher at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) at the Centre for Appearance Research (CAR), a world-leading centre in psychological and interdisciplinary research of body image and appearance. As a Research Associate, she works with a team on the development and evaluation of evidence-based tools to improve body image in young people, which forms part of a long-standing academic partnership between CAR and the Dove Self-Esteem Project.

Prior to joining CAR in 2019, Sharon worked as a freelance editor and writer, authoring articles and essays (online and print) on the topics of bodies, self-image, violence against women, and feminism. In 2011, Sharon founded the AnyBody Argentina chapter in Buenos Aires where she acted as its Director until 2019 when she relocated to Bristol, UK. Sharon joined AnyBody in 2009.

Jorden has been volunteering with AnyBody since 2019, mostly involved with the social media output. She works in healthcare libraries and loves cats.

Susie Orbach is a psychotherapist, psychoanalyst, writer and co-founder of The Women’s Therapy Centre in London (1976) and The WTCI in New York (1981). Susie founded AnyBody UK in 2002 and the AnyBody Global movement (formerly Endangered Bodies) in 2011. She was convenor of both until 2019 and is currently a trustee of AnyBody UK. She is the author of many books. Her most recent In Therapy: The Unfolding Story is an expanded edition of In Therapy (an annotated version of the BBC series listened to live by 2 million people). Her first book Fat is a Feminist Issue has been continuously in print since 1978. Bodies (which won the APA Psychology of Women’s Book Prize in 2009) was updated in 2019. She is the recipient of the Inaugural British Psychoanalytic Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award. She was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL) in 2019. She continues to help many individuals and couples from her practice in London.