Badass by Biology

Hi, I'm Alice.

I'm a neuroscientist, dirt jumper, and mindset coach.

For as long as I can remember, I've judged my body. I've dieted and worked out to be smaller. Even when I was playing rugby, a sport that demanded power and strength, I still thought I needed to be skinny.

I remember being around 10 years old, right in the middle of the heroin chic era, genuinely hating my bum. I was comparing myself to other girls' bodies, thinking it was too big, too much. Then a decade later, big bums became fashionable. Nothing about my body changed; only the narrative did.

I'm tired of watching the narrative shift depending on what they want to sell us next. Heroin chic. Then curves. Now, heroin chic again. There was never a problem with our bodies, only an industry that needed us to believe there was. And we've been paying for it, in money, in time, our health, and in the way we talk to ourselves, ever since.

And I am so tired of watching that same industry set a completely different standard for men and women.

She aged naturally - now she looks tired.

She's embracing her grey hair - now she's given up.

Yet when men do the exact same thing, they're distinguished. A silver fox.

The dad bod is glorified, while nobody celebrates the mum bod, even though our mothers' incredible bodies are the reason we're all here. The double standard is exhausting. And it is doing real damage.

Cultural messaging has spent decades telling us to be small. To be quiet. To take up less space. To shrink and hide and alter the very things that make us exceptional.

So, after watching the trend move from heroin chic to big bubble butt, back to heroin chic, I've had enough. It's time to stop self-objectifying and time to start appreciating the badass power our bodies actually have.

Because my research has taught me that the fat on my thighs and my bum is not a flaw. It is fuel. It is power. It is a biological advantage.

The fat stored on women's hips and thighs is part of what keeps us going when men cannot go any longer. It is part of what carried Jasmin Paris through 268 miles of the Montane Spine Race, shattering the record by more than 12 hours, finishing ahead of every competitor. While breastfeeding. Jasmin is not the exception; she is the evidence.

Women are so badass that they are outperforming men in ultra-endurance sport. In open water swimming races over 46km, the top female swimmers were up to 12-14% faster than males. Not despite our bodies, because of them. And these are just a couple of examples of what becomes possible when a woman stops fighting herself and starts fuelling herself instead.

If every woman knew just how powerful she actually was, what her body was genuinely capable of when her mind and biology were working together, the possibilities would be endless.

That's why this group exists.

That's why I do this work.

It's time to shift the narrative.

Our bodies are not problems to be fixed. They are not ornaments to be judged. They are extraordinary biological machines: strong, capable and built for so much more than we've been told.

We are badass by biology.

And it's time we started believing it. 🧠💪