40

april 2019

yogajournal.com.au

JESSAMYN STANLEY WOULD LIKEy’all to stop calling her

a yogi—please and thank you. The 31-year-old yoga

teacher from North Carolina, who once shamelessly

peed her pants in Savasana rather than leave the room

while teaching a hot-yoga class in London, has been

struggling with mild celebrity since people started

recognising her in Whole Foods and the airport and

the DMV and sometimes just walking down the street.

“Aren’t you that yoga teacher from the tampon

commercial?” they began asking after she starred in

American Jessamyn Stanley is so over white-centric, consumer-driven yoga.

Armed with a highly articulate voice, a powerful social platform, and a whole lot

of attitude, this yoga teacher and New Age thought leader has declared to the

world that anybody can practice yoga. And she’s not afraid to show us how it’s

done.

By Lindsay Tucker

U

RN

WN

Fitness ad for menstrual pads. “Hey, aren’t you that

yogi from Instagram?” It can sometimes feel relentless.

And while it’s true that Stanley’s Instagram account

(with 400,000 followers and rising) is populated by

pictures of her, often in her underwear, practicing

difficult yoga poses, she says the fame and other forms

of ego candy that fuel social media are greatly at odds

with the yogic lifestyle she’s trying to live. So will

everyone just chill and let her live it?

Like it or not, Stanley has attracted a massive

amount of attention in what feels like a few short

years. Since 2015, she’s been recognised by countless

media outlets such as Forbes, Bon Appétit, and USA PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRISTOPHER DOUGHERTY