By: Communications
From left to right: Caitlin Parry, Hannah Furness, Rebekah Temple-Fielder and Beatrice Law from UEA Ballet Club.
Members of the University of East Anglia’s (UEA) Ballet Club have been taking photographs around campus to promote body positivity and tackle the stigma of eating disorders in sport as part of their ‘Love Your Leo’ Campaign.
Established back in 2019, the campaign has one main goal: ‘to promote diversity in a society that tells us we should all look a certain way’. Stating that ‘all bodies are ballet bodies’, the ‘Love Your Leo’ campaign destigmatises talking about eating disorders in sport, giving them a voice, and a platform, in which to promote body positivity.
Over one million people in the UK live with an eating disorder, according to charity Rethink Mental Illness. That represents around 2% of the UK population, but a recent study from UK Sport revealed that this rises to 13.5% among elite athletes, and over 20% of female athletes.
Not only does ‘Love Your Leo’ support the club’s 100 members (with Leo being an abbreviation for Ballet’s sportswear, leotards), but the campaign has now spread to many other sporting clubs at UEA, such as Surf, Netball and Swimming, as well as reaching other universities, who all join UEA Ballet in posting pictures to social media channels including Instagram and adding to the spread of body positivity.
Outside of the university setting, UEA’s Ballet Club gives back to the wider Norfolk community by using ‘Love Your Leo’ to raise money for ‘Eating Matters’, a Norfolk based charity which offers counselling for young people with eating disorders. So far, UEA Ballet have raised £700 for the campaign via their Just Giving page.
During their campaign, Ballet Club also built a body positivity wall in The Hive, the UEA Student Union space on campus, encouraging everyone on campus to share empowering messages.
Elspeth Mcguigan, UEA Ballet Publicity Representative, said: “Love Your Leo is such an important campaign for UEA Ballet. Our aim is to promote body positivity in sport, especially where we wear tight-fitting clothing.
“Spreading the message that every body is a ballet body, and making sure everyone feels confident and comfortable in our clubs in one of the most important aspects of the campaign. We love seeing clubs across UEA getting involved as well as clubs from other universities too!”
Widening the campaign’s reach further, UEA Ballet took over UEA’s weekly Sport Night at the LCR club on campus, encouraging all those who participated in the campaign to come dressed in their leotards, unitards and other sports kits to show further support for the initiative.
The campaign also inspired the start of the ‘Bring a Buddy to Ballet’ class, which raised money for the ‘Eating Matters’ charity, as well as creating a friendly and collaborative community around the campaign and the sport itself.
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