Libby Tozer is an author and photographer, and founder of the She Is Seen Movement, an inspiring group of women discovering and celebrating self acceptance and shifting perceptions about body image. Here she talks about her life-changing social enterprise and how you can join this supportive women’s movement.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
I was inspired by my daughter who, unbeknown to her, gave me the perfect script to begin a self-acceptance movement that I know has already changed many women’s lives and will change many more to come. This is a movement that is now under my skin, it’s self-propelling and at times all consuming.
I’m going to include a passage from my latest book called ‘Through Her Eyes’. It sums up my motivation and reason I do this.
“What if we could see ourselves through her eyes that which we have forgotten how to see.
“What if by imitating us, she is saying “mum when I grow up I want to look, and be just like you”.
She plays dress ups in your clothes to look as you do, she literally walks in your shoes to move as you can, she longs for legs like yours to dance under the stars until the moon leaves the sky. She truly craves the comfort only your arms can give.
Yet we forget. What if by judging ourselves we are judging future parts of her, as she wants to be all that you are, because to her you are everything she could ever hope to be.
The launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
I wrote the book ‘Through Her Eyes’ and then the She Is Seen Movement took on a life of its own, becoming so much more than I ever dreamed of.
About five years ago, I watched an awesome TED talk by a woman named Meaghan Ramsey called ‘Why thinking you’re ugly is bad for you,’ so began the journey of ‘Through Her Eyes’.
Initially it was to be a children’s book, but after many drafts and conversations within my professional networks it became apparent that this was to be a story for women rather than children. Almost instantaneously the words took on a life of their own as ‘Through Her Eyes’ seemingly wrote itself.
This new perspective of writing for the mother morphed and became a collection of stories exposing the unspoken truths of women. It is beautiful, heartbreaking, expansive and raw. A new path I had yet to explore opened before me! One creating a journey that would change my life and that of many other women.
Visions of women standing in their truth, baring all with unadulterated honesty began to fill my mind, propelling me to reach out and find the women destined to embody everything that is ‘Through Her Eyes’.
