A STUDENT artist has created inspiring anti-diet messages and placed them around London in a bid to help those who experience “fatphobia”.
Dory Blackmore, from Rochester, Kent, initially started leaving embroidered body positive messages around her hometown before leaving them around the capital city.
The 23-year-old has so far hand-stitched around 30 motivational messages which she hangs in areas where members of the public can easily spot.
One message, which she placed on a barrier at the Thames, reads: “You are worthy of love.”
Another hanging on a train states: “Your weight might change but your worth doesn’t.”
While one message strapped to a lamppost at Trafalgar Square reads: “You don’t exist to lose weight.”
Dory shared images of her creative messages on Facebook on Wednesday (AUG 18), captioned: “I’m an embroidery artist. I’m currently working on a craftivism project spreading self love and anti-diet messages. @self_love_craft_club on instagram”
The inspiring post racked up hundreds of likes from social media users.
Jenny Rampton said: “Brilliant. It will make people smile.”
Marianne Bee gushed: “These are great, really uplifting.”
While Emma Hughes wrote: “Brilliant. As someone who has put on weight so many people congratulated me on my pregnancy. So humiliating.”
Speaking today (FRI), the Nottingham Trent University textile design student: “They are part of my masters project which is inspired by craftivism, fat activism and guerrilla kindness – which is the act of leaving a handmade item in public for someone to pick up with no expectation of payment.
“I’m a fat woman myself and I feel like especially now after lockdown there’s a lot of fatphobic and diet culture rhetoric about.
“I hope even in a small way my messages can help counteract that.
“I started in my town Rochester in July and then spread to London and Margate.
“I take a few in my bag wherever I go and hope I see a good spot to leave one.
“I’d estimate I’ve left about 30 but I make new ones every day so it’s an ongoing project.”
Beat, the UK’s leading eating disorders charity, said: “We believe approximately 1.25 million people in the UK have an eating disorder.
“Around 25% of those affected by an eating disorder are male.”
Recent research from the NHS information centre showed that up to 6.4% of adults displayed signs of an eating disorder (Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, 2007).
