Nowadays, ringing in a new year has become closely associated with New Year's resolutions — often fitness-related ones. While many gyms take advantage of those resolutions by rolling out aggressive new ad campaigns, you might notice something slightly different about Equinox's campaign this year.
On Tuesday, the brand unveiled a new campaign, titled "Commit to Something," with an ad featuring a model proudly showing off her mastectomy scars.
Samantha Paige, the model in the ad, had already survived thyroid cancer when she tested positive for the BRCA1 gene, an inherited genetic mutation that significantly increases the risk for breast and ovarian cancers.
"When my daughter was 7 months old, my determination to be healthy for my baby was so strong that I decided it was the right time to preemptively have the double mastectomy," Paige told People. "I didn’t want to keep going for MRIs and mammograms every three to six months — it was too unnerving, and the risk seemed too great."
Though Paige initially opted for reconstructive breast surgery following her mastectomy, she told People that the implants never felt quite right, and eventually had them removed.
"I wanted to feel healthy, and I knew for me it was the right decision," she told People. "I felt better immediately."
Paige also explained that she hopes her ad inspires others to be more body-confident.
"After coming to this place of loving my body and every scar, my goal is to influence, first of all, how my daughter feels about her body as a growing woman, and if it can influence another person to do the same, I feel as if I have done something beautiful," Paige told People.
As we head into 2017 with new goals and resolutions (whether or not they be fitness-related or not), it's nice to see one gym brand recognizing that there's more than one idea of what being "healthy" can look like.
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