Imagine you're lying in bed tapping through Instagram Stories and you come across a profile asking poll questions. How are you feeling this week: good or bad? What's more likely playing in your headphones: podcasts or music? What do you feel more of right now: self-love or self-doubt? For the last question, one in two women would pick the latter, according to The Self Love Index — a global report launched by The Body Shop in March.
Commissioned by the beauty brand to inform a longterm commitment to self-esteem, The Self Love Index surveyed over 22,000 people from 21 different countries on their self-worth, happiness, and well-being — and it revealed some surprising insights. Along with the discovery that one in two women feel more self-doubt than self-love, it also found that 60% wish they had more respect for themselves. What's more, it found that the pandemic has actually had a more positive impact on women's self-love than negative, and that social media has a divisive effect on our happiness, providing some women with emotional support while others with lower self-esteem.
In response to these findings, The Body Shop is launching a new global initiative, Self Love Uprising, to create positive change in the world at every level. The brand's aim is to spread one million acts of self-love in one year with the help of global partners like actor and activist Jameela Jamil and Sara Kuburic (aka The Millennial Therapist). It will also lead initiatives on a local level with its "Leading Light" supporters, including actor and director Tommy Dorfman and founder of Future Ancestors, Larissa Crawford. Learn more about this inspiring campaign and how you can get involved here.
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