Why did you start We Are Living Cute?
We started with a desire to create a safe space to show women and
non-binary people the importance of loving yourself. This started by
simply showing a true depiction of two women in their late twenties
just getting through life, working on themselves and being transparent
with the world about what that actually looks like for us. We wanted to
show people that the journey towards self-love and acceptance isn’t
necessarily easy or something that happens overnight, but is com-
pletely worth the pay-off.
How have your relationships with your bodies changed
over the years?
We both describe the relationship with our bodies as ever changing.
Every day is different and it isn’t fair to say we love what we see every
single day, but we’re both at a place in our lives where we don’t let the
way we look dictate our self-worth. The relationship you have with your
physical and mental health is so important, and we both believe that
when you have an off day, you need to live in the moment to figure out
why you’re feeling that way. We know we’ll only continue to grow and
strengthen the relationship we have with our bodies as time goes on.
What part does the media play in peddling unrealistic
body ideals?
We think the media plays a huge part in dictating an unhealthy per-
spective on what’s deemed ‘acceptable’ and ‘desirable’ through the
portrayal of unrealistic bodies and perfectly photoshopped skin and
body shapes – how can people relate to an image of a body they can-
not attain? It’s harmful to the 95% of the population who don’t and
could never (and shouldn’t have to) look like the models they choose to
show. We think it’s so important to let people know: “Hey you’re okay,
and you’re perfect just the way you are in the skin you’re in.”
Why did you decide to organise your own shoot featuring
diverse Australian bodies?
Jaimie found a campaign from a large Australian retailer discussing
the extension of their bra size range to a size 26, but every person in
the image was under a size 16 and we just thought, really? Are you
even trying? This was not the first campaign we’d seen that did a poor”
“
We think it’s so
important to let people
know: “Hey you’re okay,
and you’re perfect just
the way you are in the
skin you’re in”