Never Feel Pressured To Be Summer Body Ready

1 June 2025

The temperature is rising and with it the annual pressure to be ‘summer body ready’, but real confidence means embracing the body you already have, not chasing someone else’s ideal, writes author and equality campaigner Elizabeth G.

Summer Body Pressure – image Courtesy Kaboompics.com/Pexels

It’s that time of year again, the dreaded ‘summer body ready’ season. Many of us still remember the infamous 2015 Protein World ad that asked, “Are you Beach Body Ready?” plastered across the Tube and magazines, featuring a model in a bright yellow bikini.

I remember seeing that poster and feeling a wave of shame wash over me. It made me feel like I couldn’t set foot on a beach until I looked just like her: flat stomach, flawless thighs and not an ounce of imperfection in sight.

But the backlash was swift. Women everywhere, and of all shapes and sizes, began posting beach and poolside pictures, proudly captioned, “I am always beach body ready.” That moment ignited something powerful. It made us start questioning what being ‘ready’ for the beach even means, and who gets to decide.

I’ve always thought of myself as a fairly body-confident woman. Whether I’ve been a size eight or a size fourteen, I’ve loved my curves, eaten well, exercised regularly, and embraced the body I’ve been given.

But that doesn’t mean I’m immune to the pressure. Every summer, it creeps back in, that voice whispering I should be leaner, more toned, chiselled and cellulite-free.

I’d like to think we’ve made progress since the ‘heroin chic’ era of the ’90s, but with the rise of the skeletal, Ozempic-inspired look now sweeping through Hollywood, I can’t help but wonder whether we’ve simply rebranded the same old obsession with being as…