How These Two Best Friends Are Challenging Unrealistic Body Standards
Georgia Gibbs and Kate Wasley of Any BODY Co. first met through a mutual friend in Perth a few years ago, and have been inseparable ever since.
The Aussie models shot to fame when they began posting pictures together on their Instagram, and one of the photos received a particularly negative comment.
"You have photoshopped yourself thinner or your friend bigger, what kind of friend are you?" it said.
RELATED: How These Best Friends Responded To Body Shamers Made Them Insta Famous
Georgia is a size six, while Kate is a size sixteen, but for some reason the commenter had difficulty believing that they could be seen together.
Georgia responded to the comment by saying, "All I see here is two women… not one "skinny" woman and one "curvy" woman, stop comparing everyone to each other and accept every person as beautiful in their own right."
The accusation received media attention all over the world, and the girls even got a shoutout from Khloe Kardashian! Their following has skyrocketed to 150k over the course of a few short weeks.
But Georgia and Kate have even bigger plans for this project. They're gearing up to create a societal movement around beauty standards.
"The response to the project has been amazing, attracting attention from celebrities like Khloe Kardashian has really inspired us and encouraged us to push what was a small project and make it a societal movement," they told Women's Health Australia over email.
The accusations of photoshopping have been a learning experience for them, and they added that it's given them a real insight into how society feels about body image.
"Mostly, we have learnt that women are crying out for social media to be REAL, advertising to be all inclusive and the biggest struggle is the comparisons between themselves and someone else," they said.
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Georgia and Kate believe the main reason people have been drawn to engage with their account is because they can relate to feeling pressure from unachievable beauty standards portrayed by the media and advertising.
Their experience has encouraged them to keep fighting body shamers and avoid comparing their bodies to others, while encouraging women to do the same.
"We both have our insecurities, we’re just human!" they said. "Being best friends and so different has helped us embrace our bodies and what makes us unique, accepting that trying to replicate others will never make you happy has really helped us both."
These women are unstoppable, and we love the empowering message they're sending, one Instagram at a time.
