Your Body Was Never a Problem - by Bella Davis (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

What happens if you just... stop trying to 'fix' yourself?

Your Body Was Never A Problem shows you what life looks like when you stop waiting to look 'better'. For your entire life, you've been told your body needs fixing in some way: that it is too soft, too big, too hairy or too visible. Through beauty standards, media, comments, comparison and the messages you absorbed from childhood, you learned to see completely normal features of your body as flaws. You learned to plan your life around impossible beauty standards, waiting to feel confident enough to wear that bikini, take that trip or show up for the people you love. But if you learned to hate, hide and change your body, you can begin to unlearn those beliefs too.

Bella Davis has lived through recovery from an eating disorder and rebuilt her relationship with her own body from the ground up. Drawing on her own experiences alongside insights from more than 15 experts and contributors, she explores where our body insecurities come from and how we can begin to challenge them. In this book, she hands you the same permission she had to give herself: permission to stop shrinking, to stop treating every part of your body as something to manage, hide or apologise for. It's time to live fully, exactly as you are.

In this candid, wickedly honest reckoning with beauty standards, you'll learn how to:

• See cellulite, stretch marks and body hair as normal features of your body rather than flaws
• Understand where body insecurity comes from and begin unlearning the beliefs that taught you your body needed fixing
• Stop letting body insecurity steal your joy, your intimacy and your confidence
• Navigate body comments from family, partners and social media without letting them define how you see yourself
• Foster a healthier relationship with your body when it changes
• Help the next generation grow up without inheriting shame and insecurity

This is where you stop postponing your life. Your body was never something you needed to fix in the first place. Whether you're healing from diet culture, navigating body changes or just exhausted by the war with your reflection, this book is about unlearning everything that taught you that you weren't enough and taking back the joy, confidence and life that body insecurity has stolen from you.

From the Back Cover

Stop putting your life on hold

Bella Davis spent most of her life negotiating with her body: bargaining, restricting, hiding, apologising, starting again on Monday. Then one day she got tired of the negotiation and started asking questions.

Your Body Was Never a Problem is a candid, wickedly honest reckoning with the beauty standards an entire generation absorbed before we could even spell 'cellulite'. From Disney princesses to swimming carnivals to the constantly evolving beauty standards in magazines and on social media, Bella traces exactly how girls learned to see ordinary bodies as problems. We weren't born hating our bodies. We learned to. And if those beliefs were learned, they can also be unlearned.

With the bluntness of your best friend and the warmth of your big sister, Bella draws on her own recovery from an eating disorder while charging fearlessly through the topics we're too often told to tiptoe around: period shame, body hair, sex, intimacy and changing bodies. She unpacks where the shame came from, what it's taken from us and what we can do about it.

Sharp, funny and occasionally uncomfortable, Bella Davis hands you the same permission she had to give herself: permission to stop shrinking, to stop postponing your life and to instead be seen exactly as you are, rolls, stretch marks, body hair and all.

About the Author

Bella Davis is a body-image advocate and content creator. Drawing on her experience of recovering from an eating disorder, she challenges the beauty standards and conditioning that teach us our bodies are problems, helping others embrace, accept and celebrate their bodies. Find her at @isabelladavis6