My Life: Kelsey Hibberd, 20, Essex
Kelsey Hibberd
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
I've always been enthusiastic about equality, passionate about improvement and crazy about good causes - something that's stemmed from wanting to live in a better, fairer society - and becoming chair of my youth council opened up a whole new world of opportunities for me to be able to make a difference for young people.
I wanted to work on issues that I felt were important yet under-represented, so I decided to volunteer for fantastic organisations such as Stonewall, YMCA and Essex Police.
From there, I went on to set up my own voluntary organisation and recently supported the YMCA and Dove's Be Real body confidence campaign as a youth ambassador.
Body confidence was a real issue for me when I was younger. In the beginning, I didn't have issues with my appearance but society convinced me otherwise. Drip-fed by the media on how to be "perfect", bullies wreaking havoc on my mental health and being brainwashed by a Photoshop culture all played an unhealthy part on my - and no doubt many others' - negative self-image journey.
This is why I got involved with such a campaign, to help shape one of the most powerful influences - our media - and aid thousands of men and women to escape the self-loathing trap of low self-esteem.
How can we pass on love if we don't even love ourselves?
