Interview: Becky Young - Anti Diet Riot Club

Bouncy curls. Broad smile. Brilliant message - this is Becky Young, founder of the Anti Diet Riot Club.

Set up in 2017, the ADRC was founded to bring the body acceptance movement out of online spaces and into real life, with the aim to build a rebellious-spirited community dedicated to fighting back against ‘Diet Culture’ and the dangerous body ideals and standards of beauty that surround it. ‘Dedicated’ and ‘spirited’ are definitely two adjectives I would use to describe Becky, as we met for a coffee and pastry (water and banana for me) before the interview to get to know each other a little more.

An Oxford graduate, Becky is definitely smart. But she’s also interesting to speak too and eloquent in the down-to-earth kind of way that makes you want to listen to her speak for ages. She explains to me how the movement was born, and what inspired her, and our conversation quickly turned to an admonishment of the capitalistic media frenzy that has fuelled so many mental health issues. It was in this conversation that I truly realised how many people suffer with body image issues, the scale of impact it can have on people’s lives and the sheer variety of eating disorders.

In my interview, rather than focusing on the importance of body positivity (as most people my generation know why it’s important - BECAUSE SIZE DOESN’T MATTER AND WE SHOULD NOT STRIVE TO FIT AN IDEALISED IMAGE FROM THE MEDIA WE CANNOT ACHIEVE) I wanted to focus on how to healthily encourage people to well, be more healthy, whilst still maintaining the body positive vibe. Though our approaches and views differ, Becky and I definitely found middle ground on the fact that the impact body dysmorphia can have on an individual, and the responsibility of our generation to turn this around.

I hope you enjoy listening to the interview, and as always, I would love to hear YOUR views on body positivity.