Bella Davis: ‘There’s no such thing as a bad body’
Known as the “self-love hype girl”, popular body acceptance influencer Bella Davis is on a mission to help more women learn to embrace their bodies.
Australian body positive advocate Bella Davis wants you to know there’s no such thing as a “bad” body.
“All the features we are told are flaws – like cellulite, hip dips, body hair, everything else – they’re just normal features of the human body,” Bella says.
“We’re made to feel so much shame about our bodies, so I want people to know their body isn’t wrong, it’s not flawed, it doesn’t need fixing, it’s not imperfect.
“It’s beautiful the way it is, and it is normal.”
Why Bella Davis isn’t a stereotypical influencer
Despite having more than 265,000 followers on Instagram, the 27-year-old is not your stereotypical social media influencer, nor does she want to be.
Bella, who lives in Sydney, often shares photos of herself before and after gaining weight.
Her Instagram feed is flooded with candid snaps of her enjoying her body – dancing, wiggling and jiggling.
It all started a few years ago when people were posting about using Covid-19 lockdowns as a time to lose weight and get a “better” body.
“I was just honestly sick of it,” Bella says.
Instead, she took a photo of her cellulite and posted it online.
“I wrote about the fact that I had been editing my photos for so long and I was sick of it,” Bella says.
“I said, ‘This is what I look like; this is what my cellulite looks like; this is what my legs look like’.”
Bella’s journey to helping others
The response was overwhelmingly positive, and what began as a way for Bella to heal from her own body image struggles grew into something far bigger.
“It started reaching people I didn’t know it would reach – people from the other side of the world – and people were saying, ‘Thank you for sharing this; this is what I look like, too’.”
According to the Butterfly Foundation, more than a million Australians live with eating disorders.
Its recent youth survey found social media made almost half of young people feel dissatisfied with their bodies.
Bella says she has dealt with poor body image, and admits when she was younger she had an “unhealthy obsession” with being thin.
Many of her followers have struggled with eating disorders and have posted about how much Bella has helped them.
“I’m really happy to be able to help people,” she says.
“I find that by helping them I’m also healing myself at the same time, so I’m open about the struggles; I’m pretty vulnerable.”
How Bella kicks bad body image days
Her body image journey has not been easy – Bella admits she struggled when her body changed.
“It’s OK if your body changes because our bodies will change throughout every stage of our life; we might gain weight, we might lose it, and that’s OK,” she says.
“I need people to know that your body shape is the least interesting thing about you.
“The people around you, like family and friends, love you for you – they’re not worried about how much you weigh or what the size of your clothes are.”
Bella acknowledges it’s not realistic to love your body every second of every day, so she promotes the idea of being body neutral, where you exist in your body without thinking too much about how it looks.
She also recommends being kind to your body and appreciating what it can do.
“It’s a vessel that allows you to do things: your body allows you to play with your kids, allows you to make memories, and it allows you to eat the foods that you love.”
When she’s having a bad body image day, Bella reminds herself it’s just that.
“Somehow that really helps – just that phrase reminding myself that I don’t have a bad body, I’m just having a bad body image day, and that’s OK.”
And she has this reminder for us all: “You’re worthy and deserving of love, happiness, joy, success, everything you want right now.
“You don’t need to change yourself to be worthy of those things.”
For further information on or to find support for body image issues, contact the Butterfly Foundation. You can also call the national helpline on 1800 334 637.
More interviews with social media stars and other celebrities:
- How ‘nerd’ Pia Muehlenbeck became Australian social media royalty
- Francesca Hung: ‘Feeling invisible can chip away at you’
- Christian Wilkins on finding your identity and having fun with make-up
- Ella Ding’s rule of three: Why a holistic approach to wellness matters
Written by Bianca Carmona.
