Bish: Courage and kindness is key
It took many years for Warracknabeal’s Brittnee Bish to build the courage to truly accept herself.
A major turning point was after her first child, Savannah, came into her life.
But her self-discovery journey to become confident in her own skin did not come easy.
The 22-year-old’s road to empowerment is a theme embedded in her new book, Unapologetically You.
The young entrepreneur, who runs her own virtual marketing business, said she wanted the book to empower women everywhere.
Unapologetically You takes a firsthand look into women’s trials and tribulations regarding self-acceptance, body image and mental health.
The book unveils a ‘raw and honest’ look into Bish’s life and the steps she took on her road to self-empowerment, which led to interviews with four women who share their journey and the tools they used to empower themselves.
The illustration on the front cover is a rendition of a nude photo taken of Bish at a photo shoot with Horsham business Bella Madre Photography.
Continuing the theme, the book also includes a photo of six women posed in their underwear.
Bish said the imagery she used was an important tool in capturing the diversity of body shape.
“I wanted to help other women feel the same way I do about myself,” she said. “There isn’t a perfect size – you can be any size and still love yourself.
“During the photo shoot, the photographer asked if anyone wanted to get any nude photos.
“Everyone was feeling so empowered that we stripped off and went for it. I’m now at a point where I’ve shared the picture to my social media – that would have been extremely hard for me to do a long time ago.”
Bish’s struggle growing up in an unstable family unit affected how she viewed the world around her.
She said her inability to accept herself in her formative years and early adolescence shaped the way she treated other people.
“I’ve never spoken openly before about growing up in a domestic violence household and I never admitted to me being a bully – I hid that all the way down and never let anyone know I was that person,” she said.
“It was a massive reality check when it finally sunk in. I changed schools thinking I would make new friends, thinking those insecurities would go away. But they didn’t. The same cycle kept repeating itself.”
Bish said having
“I changed schools thinking I would make new friends, thinking those insecurities would go away. But they didn’t. The same cycle kept repeating itself” – Brittnee Bish
her first child changed her perspective forever – her key values became ‘courage and kindness’.
“That came with a lot of difficulties when I started experiencing bullying myself,” she said.
“I was the pregnant vulnerable one. It made me realise how I was making other women feel. I didn’t want to do that anymore. There was fear and uncertainty of my daughter growing up in a world similar to how I was treating people.
“I didn’t want her to get treated the way I was treating other people, or feel what I was feeling.”
Bish said she hoped the book could help other women truly express their ‘authenticity’. “Everyone’s facing different challenges so I wanted to give as much value as I could in the book,” she said.
“I wanted to reach out to as many women as possible.
“I felt getting different perspectives on self-care and acceptance would help to branch out to more women.”
Bish said she believed self-acceptance was key to being kind to others.
“It all really comes from within. I think you can’t accept other people until you find that acceptance within yourself,” she said.
“Kindness is the biggest value to me. Be kind to yourself before you can be kind to other people.”
The book is available as a free downloadable E-book on Bish’s website, Virtual Wimmera: www.virtualwimmera. com.au/collections/unapologeticallyyou/products/unapologeticallyyou-e-book.