This week, we are meeting Jo Caley, who founded and runs highstreetfitfinder.com, a website that helps women to buy the right size clothes first time.
You can connect with Jo and High Street Fit Finder on Twitter: @highstfitfinder @wiseonsize
What are you doing differently?
Jo: As well as helping women to buy clothes that fit, quickly and easily, we want to help women to stop defining their self-worth by being, or wanting to be, a certain size, and to be happy in their own skin.
We aim to do this by making “size” irrelevant; it should be just a number that is used to purchase something, and by only allowing additional advertising on the website that is body positive, body diverse and not airbrushed, women can shop without comparison to unrealistic body ideals.
What was a pivotal moment in your life as a woman social entrepreneur?
Jo: When a mentor exclaimed to a room full of people “but you can’t code, you’re a girl—joke” after I had informed him that I had built the prototype search engine and website myself. Oh and when he told me that my business was “too emotive” and I was “too emotional”. It’s safe to say he is no longer my mentor!
What would be your favourite guests for a dinner party in your line of work?
Jo: It would be a fairly large dinner party but if i had to choose 5 people, the table would look a bit like this:
If I tell you “love”, what are you telling me?
Jo: Love your body, love yourself. And if you need a little inspiration to do either of those things, check out our pinterest board on the subject here…
How does your world look like in 2030?
Jo: All imagery used in the media would be body positive and body diverse, and labelled if airbrushed. The media would no longer describe someone by their dress size. Models used in aspirational marketing would represent our culture’s diverse range of shape and size, not to mention age and race. Retailers and brands would be open, honest and transparent regarding their size charts and target demographic. High streets would once again be the heart of the community. And most importantly, people would no longer judge their own self-worth, or other’s, by being a certain size.