Hey! This is Helene, founder of Rawnice.

You haven’t heard from me in a while, and that's because I’ve been baking a tiny little human, Charlie, in my “kitchen”. I’m currently on maternity leave since six months back.

In between changing diapers and feeding my little girl I want to connect with you through this VERY important text about loving yourself.

By sharing my view on how many companies use twisted ideals to force you into buying their stuff, my goal with this article is to help you realize you are already perfect and totally good enough without them. Honestly, I really mean it.

So let's start off by revealing the BIGGEST and best kept secret of the health food industry.

This might come as a surprise, and I hope Rawnice won’t have to file for bankruptcy after breaking this “secret” to you, but it is important to understand this before we move on.

"No beauty blend, detox juice or immunity elixir in the world will give you a six pack, bigger boobs, fewer wrinkles, longer hair, a higher salary or even wings to fly".

Here is just one example.

Did you ever reflect on why most health food brands use skinny 20-year-olds in their marketing? Did you ever question what a half-naked young girl has to do with selling a superfood for smoothies, dietary supplements or even a pair of alpine skis?

Some of you probably didn’t, and that's because we are so used to sexist marketing strategies that are non-diverse and often created by dudes to promote unrealistic ideals and make fat profits.

Now that that is out of the way, let's dive a bit deeper to understand why we believe we need all of these products and external things to become happy and feel good.

To best illustrate this problem, let me share my personal story.. Don’t worry I’ll keep it short.

I was once a young woman living in Los Angeles, struggling with being friends with myself. I remember working out six days a week and still not feeling fit. I remember being out running two hours just to allow myself to have a cheat meal on the weekend. I remember looking in the mirror and only seeing a million flaws.

Looking back at old pictures, I’m like- DAAAMN girl, you were hotttttt back then.

Here is young Helene ca 2009.

The reason I felt this way is because I was comparing myself to the “perfect” women that I saw all around me in media, ads, billboards, tv shows etc.

Comparing myself to them made me feel really bad about myself, as I could never look like that and have such a “perfect” life, no matter how hard I tried.

When I founded Rawnice in 2015, I had come a long way, and started to realize that these ideals are super twisted and unrealistic. But all traditional health food brands still marketed their products to promote young, skinny, white girls.

This made me angry, I mean red in the face angry, so I had to do something about it.

I am now passionate about combatting this problem, by bringing more diversity into the health food scene. Both in terms of offering colorful superfoods, instead of the boring green ones, but also by challenging the way people perceive health.

We are creating a place where EVERYONE is welcome, and where health is more about balance than “perfect” looks. To achieve this vision I promised myself that Rawnice would never use a naked female body to make a profit, and to include all kinds of people in our marketing.

Because as you know, health is not exclusive to skinny white chicks in their early twenties, even if that is what most of us see. (No offense to you 20 y/o girls, like you know know I used to be one of them).

While holding my baby girl, I now wonder how I can teach her to love herself and her body in a world where people go through extreme plastic surgery to look like a Kardashians, or an Instagram model..

In a world where carbs are considered evil and a “cheat” days are only allowed after hours of cardio. In a world where being 30+ is considered old. In a world where you are expected to bounce back 2 days after giving birth.

The following things are some of the foundational principles I plan on teaching my daughter as she grows up.

Hopefully they could be helpful for you too if you feel that you want to love and accept yourself for who you are.

1. Practice self-love
- If you know that you are already perfect you are less likely to fall for cheap marketing tricks. Why would you need to buy a “beautifying” product or compare yourself to photoshopped instagram models if you feel good about yourself?

2. Stop following influencers that make you feel bad.
- So the word influencer comes from, guess what, INFLUENCE. Expose yourself to positive influences rather than the negative ones. I’ve started to avoid certain types of content because it triggers me to compare myself to others. I used to follow a lot of fitness accounts for inspiration before but after realizing that it makes me feel bad, I quit. Simple as that.

3. Don’t support companies that objectify women or push shitty ideals in their marketing
- Your money is your vote, don’t put it in the pockets of companies that use half naked women if it’s not necessary. If you buy their products you enable them to keep doing what they’re doing.

4. React
- If you see or hear something that reinforces these unrealistic ideals..say something. Leave a comment on social media and question it in public. By doing that, other followers will become more aware, and at the end of the day we’ll be an army of people standing up against bullshit.

To conclude this short article, let me share my current situation.

I am now 34 and I love myself A LOT more, even though my belly is like dough (all the mamas out there can relate), I’m almost 30 pounds heavier (let’s call it baby fat) and my face looks like I’ve been abusing crystal meth from months of lack of sleep.

So many years I spent worrying about some cellulite on my tiny little white ass when I could have just… loved myself.

My goal, the goal of Rawnice, is to help women feel good about themselves at any age and shape. To show everyone that eating healthy can be fun and delicious, but not filled with guilt, because life's too short not to have cake!

We promise to never give up this fight. You are perfect the way you are. Never forget that.

I know that Rawnice is not going to solve all the problems in the world (that was my mission at first but real life hit me). Now we want to use our platform to educate people, spread positive vibes and rebel against crazy ideals and outdated norms.

And off course...SPRINKLE OUR COLORS ON THE WORLD

If you are till around at the end, I sincerely want to thank you for reading all the way down here! It means so much to have you spend your valuable time with me for a couple of minutes.

It would be so cool to keep the discussion going in the comment section!

What do you think about all of this? Do you agree? And why do you feel that way?

And do you have any way that you combat these emotions of not being enough that might be helpful for others? Please share your thoughts below!

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Helene Arvidsson
Rawnice Founder