With last month officially marking the one-year anniversary of Britain Uncovered, we’ve decided to celebrate the occasion by taking a trip down memory lane and reflecting back on some of our favourite and most pivotal moments to date. From interviews to event reviews to body positivity photoshoots and beyond, we’re proud to have generated such an eclectic range of content – and today, we’re providing a full recap of our top ten moments!
The first 365 days in the life of Britain Uncovered were something of a whirlwind, to say the least, to the extent that there really wasn’t much of an opportunity to stop and smell the roses – but having reached our one-year anniversary back in August, now seems like the perfect time to catch our breath and reflect on how BU has evolved with a look back on some of our favourite moments in the site’s history.
We’ve been blessed with so many amazing interviewees, and each and every one has been instrumental in helping to spread the self-love message and furthering the body confidence and body positivity movements. Narrowing everything we’ve done down to a list of just ten moments was no easy feat, as we’re so appreciative for absolutely everyone who has been involved – but without further ado, here are ten of our most memorable moments to date!
1. Our interview with Cassie Naddeau (August 2020)
Our very first interview remains one of our finest, and it's a shame that it never really got the audience or exposure it warranted (hopefully its inclusion here will remedy matters).
Despite our website being relatively deserted at the time, Cassie Naddeau, a body positivity singer based in New York, very generously took the leap of faith and agreed to take part in our very first interview to get the site up and running – and it remains one of our most interesting reads to date.
2. Our interview with Beth Harrison (September 2020)
By far the most read story in Britain Uncovered's first year of action, with just short of 800 views, I was blown away by the response we received to our interview with Beth last September. We covered so much ground during the course of our conversation, and in addition to opening up on some of her body image challenges over the years, Beth kindly shared some details (along with some exclusive photos) of her visit to a nudist beach in Greece shortly before we spoke – and it was fascinating to hear her particularly astute observations about the benefits of social nudity in relation to mental health.
3. Our first official body positivity photoshoot (October 2020)
Although I’d had the pleasure of hosting several other body positivity photoshoots prior to the creation of Britain Uncovered, our official launch shoot for the site – which took place at the Belt Craft Studios in London, where many celebs and other high-profile names have been photographed over the years – really cranked things up a notch and helped to legitimise this project of ours. By the time our shoot was over, I knew we were on the right track, and am proud of the fact that we've gone from strength to strength ever since!
Our models for the day – theatre-maker, Louise, and body positivity model, Elizabeth Kate – were a joy to work with, and really helped bring our project to life. Our subsequent interview with Louise, detailing her experience taking part in the photoshoot, was the perfect complement to all the fantastic images we achieved on the day itself.
4. Our follow-up photoshoots in Brighton (November 2020 and March 2021)
Not resting on our laurels, we decided to keep up the momentum by organising some follow-up shoots down on the south coast, and joining us for these special occasions were Jess Hake and Verity Pitts, who we had first met at Sophie Tea’s Send Nudes event the year prior. Despite the threat of another lockdown lingering over us, we were just about able to squeeze in our first photoshoot at the Capture Factory Studios in Brighton last November; and the day was such a success that we decided to bring things full-circle, returning to the exact same spot to celebrate restrictions easing at the start of spring. Both days had their own distinct feel and flavour, so be sure to check out the links above to see the unique and uplifting content we ended up with.
5. Our private Body Love Sketch Club session (December 2020)
In addition to the work of Sophie Tea, one of the main inspirations behind the creation of our site were Rosy & Ruby’s Body Love Sketch Club events, which are described as “Joyful workshops in creative environment, body positivity and celebration our bodies in their (optionally naked) glory.”
We have had the pleasure of attending the duo’s events (both in person and online via Zoom), and last year, Britain Uncovered actually won a charity auction for our very own private workshop! It was a real treat getting to invite along our friends and followers to join us for this special session right before Christmas, and – in conjunction with our amazing hosts – it was brilliant being able to present another BU event deep in the heart of lockdown. Esme, who joined us for this session, subsequently took part in an interview with us and graciously shared some of her experiences from the event (you can find this by clicking here).
6. Turning to the arts (February 2021)
With lockdown putting the kibosh on our plans to hold any of our own events at the start of the year, we decided to turn our attention to the arts – and we featured a string of interviews with some of the country’s most successful and influential body positivity artists to keep us busy during this difficult time.
Fresh off of her appearance on Channel 4’s Drawer’s Off, Tiggy Beaman kicked us off by sharing some really great insight into her creative process, and we also had the pleasure of hearing from Sam Saint, Arizona Carr, and Olivia Kitty Gregory in quick succession shortly thereafter. Our interviews really hit their stride during this time, and these four pieces in particular really helped shaped the tone and set the benchmark for the way we wanted our interviews to be conducted. The aforementioned artists provided us with some fascinating insight into not only their unique brands of art, but their views on body positivity, diet culture and mental health matters too.
In our very first two-part interview, model and photographer, Megan Farmer, gave us a really extensive look into what motivates her as a photographer, and explained the reasons why she’s intent on using her camera to help spread the self-love message and help people feel more confident in their own skin. Megan’s responses to our questions, which she sent to us in a series of video clips, really took us on an emotional roller-coaster, and it was clear to see just how passionate Megan is about helping people to embrace themselves – and her photography is undoubtedly helping people to look at themselves in a fresh new light.
As a newcomer to the modelling scene, Megan also offered up her thoughts on what it’s like on the other side of the camera and how this has impacted her own body confidence journey. There’s so much great content throughout this special two-part feature, and it’s well worth checking out if you missed it back in May!
8. Our day at the beach with Elizabeth Kate (June 2021)
As fun as it is getting to host our body positivity photoshoots inside some pretty glam photo studios, with the weather taking a turn for the better, we decided to make use of the great outdoors for a shoot or two – and what better way to start than by heading down to Fairlight Glen!
Not only is it an incredibly lush part of the world, but Fairlight is also one of the country’s first nudist beaches; and to help us scope out the area, we once again turned to body positivity model (and one of our favourite people to work with), Elizabeth Kate, who made the long journey down to the coast to help us test the waters (literally!) Check out our full review and photo recap in this inaugural beach report of ours – it’s something we had wanted to do for the longest time, and hopefully we’ll have more to follow in this series next summer!
9. Our interview and photoshoot with Jess Hake (July 2021)
Although we had shot with Jess (the founder of I C ME) on several occasions prior, getting the opportunity for a one-on-one discussion and hearing her thoughts on a wide range of topics – whilst shooting candidly as we went along – proved to be a winning formula, and we ended up with a really fantastic feature that deservedly received a really positive response from our audience over on Instagram.
We covered so many different subject matters during our brunch down on the south coast, and in addition to relaying some of her experiences as a participant in Sophie Tea’s nude catwalk event, Jess also detailed why she’s not allowing society to dictate her boundaries, the reasons why she started taking part in body confidence-related projects, an explanation as to why the concept of body positivity isn’t always helpful, the reasons why desexualising the female body is so imperative, and lots more. Parts one and two are among our best posts to date and are well worth the read!
10. Neon Dreams with Verity Pitts (July 2021)
Shortly before reaching our one-year anniversary, we headed over to the bright lights of the Neon Dreams Studio in Hampshire along with Verity of The Body Confidence Issue – and we had such a fun time working our way around the studio and exploring everything it had to offer!
It’s always a pleasure shooting with someone who is just as passionate about the body positivity movement as we are, and as a result, Verity has always been the perfect candidate to work with for this type of project – and finding such a completely different environment to the types of locations we’ve used in the past made for a really interesting change of pace. The text and images in our event review provide a really comprehensive round-up of how the day unfolded, and in case you missed it, Verity also took part in an interview for the site shortly after we went live at the tail-end of 2020 (you can find this great piece here).