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12 Months - 12 Inspiration Women - Summer Innanen

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12 Months - 12 Inspirational Women - Month Four

Summer Innanen -  Author – Body Image Coach

Image: Emmy Wu Media

Image: Emmy Wu Media

I first heard of Summer after I stumbled onto her podcast Fearless Rebelle Radio and I immediately thought “Who IS this woman? A long lost badass cousin who loves swearing as much as I do!”.

Summer teaches women how to love their bodies and does it with a massive dose of rock star rebellion awesomeness. I sent her an email knowing that someone as glorious as her would surely ignore a peasant like me but I was wrong and we decided to go for a date of burgers and Lindy West’s book reading. Which was, of course, perfection and the night ended in high kicks (literally) and high fives in our brains.

 

Why Summer is inspirational:

 

1. She learnt how to decipher diet bullshit

Summer had been trying to lose weight since she was young and the threat of her imminent wedding saw her try the paleo diet. Fast forward four years later, she stopped getting her period, was exhausted all the time, and she had a seriously disordered relationship with exercise and food. After visiting her doctor and being told to ditch the diet she learnt to eat like a “normal” person, move her body because it felt good and give the middle finger to the diet industry. To be able to get out of diet turmoil like this is seriously badass and takes a lot of patience and courage.

                                 

2. She doesn’t give a fuck

Head on over to Summer’s Instagram page to see her sharing videos of her thighs jiggling, “unflattering” selfies, embracing her booty shots and other “not giving a fuck” antics. The reason why she does this is because “freedom prevails when you master the art of not giving a fuck” and I tend to agree! One really important thing to note that women who show courage, like Summer does, have to deal with attacks from internet trolls, which as you can imagine is tough, but Summer soldiers on and gives them the middle finger too!

 

3. She is changing the world

Summer just doesn’t want her world to be shame free, she wants that for everyone and has devoted her life to sharing the incredibly important message of self love. And my favourite thing about this? She is fucking hilarious about it. No judgement, no telling people that they’re wrong, just joy….and meme’s, lots of meme’s.

Summer smashing scales and in my opinion also the patriarchy too! Image: Emmy Wu Media

Summer smashing scales and in my opinion also the patriarchy too! Image: Emmy Wu Media

 

Summer’s Top 3 List

 

Top 3 Favourite Books:

 

Top 3 Influential People in your life:

  • My mom: She taught me the importance of owning who you are, getting up after being knocked down and going after what you want.

  • My mother-in-law: She is the most compassionate, empathetic and giving human on this planet. She will drop everything to help someone else.

  • My husband: He brings out the best in me and by best I mean weird. He loved me before I loved myself and I wouldn’t be able to do the work that I am doing without him.

 

Top 3 “Ah-ha” moments

  • When I turned 30 and had a stark realization that I could not spend 30 more years in the corporate world—that set me on the trajectory towards freeing myself of corporate establishments to be an entrepreneur.

  • The day I learned I was actually an introvert at the age of 34—so much of my life made sense in that moment and I was able to honour my needs in an entirely new way going forward. Too bad I didn’t get that memo 30 years earlier.

  • The moment I found out that I had damaged by body with my “healthy lifestyle” and had to admit to myself that I had a problem—it was the catalyst to my badass awakening.

 

Top 3 successes in life:

  • I wrote a book… say whaaaaat?!?! It’s called Body Image Remix and it’s available on Amazon…go get it!

  • I hiked the Kalalau trail in Kauai and most recently did a crazy hike to the forbidden (read: illegal…shhhhh, don’t tell anyone) Haiku Stairs on Oahu. If you knew me back when I was consistently last place in gym class and are familiar with my intense fear of heights, you’ll understand why these were major successes for me.

  • I have helped and inspired hundreds (maybe thousands?) of women to take their power back by breaking free of diet culture and rebelling against society’s standards of beauty—it always amazes me when I hear from women who say that I helped them so much and we’ve never even met. I plan on making that millions of women.

 

Top 3 things people should try today

  • Stop giving a fuck about what other people think.

  • Do something that makes you face your fear of judgment and rejection.

  • Stand up with your arms out and up and yell, “I AM A ROCKSTAR!!!!” Then do it again, but louder. Repeat until you shake the ground beneath you. (Optional: say "I'M A MOTHER FUCKING ROCKSTAR").

 

CONNECT

You can find Summer at her website, listen to her podcast or follow her on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Victoria is a Confidence and Body Love Coach at BAM POW LIFE. Learn how you can be exceptional at whatever you turn your hand to with free advice by signing up here. Read more articles, and get on the wait list for her Confidence Warrior eCourse starting on August 1st.