STARS gathered to congratulate former Herts and Essex High School students Ruth Rogers and Natasha Devon on the publication of The Body Gossip Book.
Celebrities supporting the positive self-image campaigners included Coronation Street’s Tina O’Brien and Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel-Horwood.
Because of filming commitments, the friends’ high-profile champion, Gok Wan, presenter of How to Look Good Naked, was unable to attend the event in London’s Kings Cross on Friday (September 7) but he recorded a video shown to guests, making his approval plain.
Gok said “I was honoured to have contributed the foreword to this amazing book”.
Body Gossip co-founder Natasha Devon, a former model, said: “The Body Gossip book is the result of four years of collating the public’s body image stories, opinions and wisdom on the subject of body image.
“We have been privileged to work with many talented writers and designers to make the book as well as to garner support from high profile TV personalities, models, musicians and politicians. The book launch was a celebration of all the hard work, dedication and love which has been poured into the book and we could not be happier with how it went.”
The launch event also included live performances by girl-band ALFEE, who recently signed to Sony and have written the official Body Gossip theme tune, as well as readings by Waterloo Road’s Zaraah Abrahams, who lives in Takeley, and Ortis Deley from The Gadget Show.
There was also a digital art slide show of real, un-airbrushed body parts, the premier of four short films made by the Body Gossip campaign, as well as the opportunity to buy t-shirts brandishing slogans such as “my body is freaking awesome”, “Body Gossip says RELAX” and “what’s so great about perfect anyway?”.
Natasha and Ruth, who is a West End actress and producer, set up the Body Gossip campaign to educate young people about a positive self image.
Their project has won approval from HRH the Duchess of Cornwall, who is the patron, and celebrities such as Alesha Dixon and Jermain Defoe.
