One of the women behind Australia’s biggest wellness empires has shared a vulnerable moment talking about her body.
Laura Henshaw, who used to work full time as a model before moving into the health and wellness space to star Kic with Steph Claire Smith, has been candid about her body image struggles.
But, in a new video where she is doing her makeup, she revealed that her body, food and exercise used to be her “Roman Empire”.
The trend features hundreds of TikToks of men admitting they think about the Roman Empire monthly, weekly and even daily, and it has amassed millions of views on TikTok.
There have been a lot of takes on what the female equivalent of the Roman Empire is, with women sharing options such as kidnapping, Taylor Swfit, Princess Diana or vampires.
But Ms Henshaw has said her Roman Empire used to be her body and the way it looked.
“As women we are literally programmed from the moment we can absorb information to think about how our body looks,” the Melbourne woman said.
“Diet culture is everywhere. The media and diet culture need to change – but so does our language at home.”
She said adults use phrases such as “I can’t eat this, I’m watching my weight” or “I ate too much yesterday” or commenting on the size of food or direct comments about bodies such as “you look good, have you lost weight?”.
She said this was reinforced by the diet industry, media, within our homes, friendship circles and conversations.
“So many women, for decades, our weight and our body have been about trying to get smaller,” she said.
“Diet culture is our Roman Empire, which is so f****d because then as women we think that our core worth, and our value that we offer others is in the way that our bodies look.
“The smaller we are the more our worth is to society and I can’t tell you enough how much our worth is not our weight.”
She said women have so much more to offer the world than their appearance.
Social media users reacted to Ms Henshaw’s brave and raw message.
One said: “Watched this and my daughter was peering over my shoulder … loved that she heard this.”
“This couldn’t be more true! I grew up watching my mum go through every fad diet available and fixate on the size on her clothes labels. It’s really messed with me as an adult and how I see myself as my body changes through my 20s and into my 30s,” another said.
