My Experience From Being On ITV's This Morning





Last week I was so lucky that I was chosen to go on live tv on ITV's This Morning. The week before a few of us proud plus size ladies had been in the Daily Mail showing off our bikini bodies and talking about body shaming. You can read this article HERE.




A couple of days after the article in the newspaper we were asked if we wanted to go on tv and talk about body shaming and body confidence . We were warned that the hosts work on the play Devil's Advocate, but I didn't feel scared for that reason cause body confidence is something I'm showing and talking about every day on my blog and in social media.




I was picked up by a car and driver early in the morning on Tuesday. I had to be at the Studio at 8:30 so I was picked up at 6.45am. I was really tired but since they had told us to come with only clean hair and no make up I only had to get dressed, so that was at least a relief. The journey of the London early in the morning midweek can be quite a test for your patience. The closer we came to the city centre the traffic was more and more stand still, so I was surprised when we managed to get to the studios on time.



The driver drove me all the way to the correct entrance. I was greeted by a security guard that asked me my name and showed me to the elevator that was going straight up to the studio. I had been very nervous, but at this stage funnily enough I wasn't nervous at all. I took the elevator upstairs and I when I came upstairs, I was greeted by a guy who was very nice and showed me to a dressing room and offered me refreshments. I only wanted water. I was the first one there so I just sat down on the chair and I was chatting to my daughter on Facebook. She was very excited on my behalf and wanted to know everything that was happening. She was at work and was wondering if she could watch it live in Norway, which I sadly had to say no to. I promised her that I would find a link so she can watch it later in the day and I promised taking lots of pictures. As you can see in my post I have taken lots of pictures that will tell the story more than any words.



About 10 minutes after I arrived Hollie came through the door and gave me a big hug, and just a couple of minutes later Melanie came as well. From this moment things happened really quickly and Hollie and Melanie went to have their makeup and hair done as they were only having room for two at that time. We had talked to one of the Producers ladies and she said that we would have a rehearsal around 9:15 so I decided to get changed into my swimwear while I was waiting for my turn in the makeup.

When I came into make up, I was greeted by a lovely guy and a lovely girl which I sadly can't remember the names of. They started immediately doing my makeup and my hair since they are having quite strict deadlines for doing things. Another girl came and helped out on my hair as well. I was saying to them that I wish I had three people doing my hair and my makeup everyday because it's such luxury to be able and just sit back and let them do your make up, and especially my hair done as I'm quite bad at doing my own hair. I was over the moon with how my hair looked. Many people were giving me compliments on my hair both at the studio and after I came back home.



I took lots of selfies of my hair, so I could remember how it looked.


We were taken into the studio itself and we were showed around.  We were allowed to sit on the sofa and we had our pictures taken on the sofa, we could pose for pictures around the rest of the set and we were showed what we were going to do when we went live.



They also did a little teaser video of us girls playing with a beach ball in our swimwear that was going to be showed to people watching the program that was on before This Morning. The whole experience in the studio just seemed surreal, because around us were about 10 cameras and probably about 20 to 30 people and we just walked around in a bikinis like we had never done anything else. It actually felt really liberating. We went back to the dressing room to have our little break before we were going on the show live. We had been told before the show that Ferne McCann were going to come with us on the show and talk about body shaming as she had been a victim of body shaming in the past. We got to meet her and she was lovely. We had our pictures taken with her as well. A couple of men which probably were sound technicians came and miked us up. but it had to be done over again as the order of where we were sitting on the sofa changed. We went into the studio again, said hello to Phillip and Holly, and went to the wall we had to stand behind before we were called out on the show.  Before we knew it the show has started and Phillip and  Holly started to introduce us to come on to the show and out we came. I felt very relaxed in the situation.  I thought I would have been a lot more nervous, but surprisingly I was completely calm and I didn't even think about that this program was being aired live out of millions of people.


Thanks to Lottie L'amour and Lolly for taking three of these photos while we were on tv. 


After the show we were quite happy with how it had gone. We were a bit annoyed that we had been asked about the health aspect of it, cause no one should judge anyone from how they look in regards to how healthy they are. And we are tired of never being able to talk about body positivity without mentioning health. Cause fat doesn't always mean unhealthy. I don't know why I feel the need to justify myself, cause I don't!  And a different health aspect that never is being mentioned is the mental health statement. Cause the way to a good physical health is by having a happy mind and you don't get a happy mind by hating yourself. So for me it was a bit sad that I wasn't allowed to point that out cause that is something that is so important for me. But at least by showing people that the world doesn't end even if we were in our bikini's on tv and we got our points across, so all in all we all were happy. We went back to the dressing room to get changed to go home when Trinny from Trinny and Susannah came into the dressing room and tell them how amazing she thought we had been. It felt even more surreal as I used to watch their shows when I lived in Norway. She certainly was a character, but she was nice. Everyone at ITV was really nice and made the whole day a truly great experience.



On the way back from London I was thinking to myself  that it had been an experience for life and I was very surprised how naturally refreshing it was to be on National live TV just in my bikini

Xxx

37 comments

  1. I love this little behind the scenes look into your time on This Morning! I was so proud of you all when I saw you on my TV, really cheered me up when I was feeling a bit rubbish. So inspirational!

    Lottie xx
    http://lottielamour.co.uk

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aww thank you so much Lottie. :) It's lovely of you. :) It was so fun to see that you had taken photos of the screen when you watched it. It made my daughter very happy too. :) xxx

      Delete
  2. That's such an interesting opportunity you had and I can't believe that you were on TV! x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much for your kind words Rhian. :) xx

      Delete
  3. I'm so proud of you Mookie, it sounds like such an amazing experience! I could never do that - not because of the bikini, but being on live TV would be so scary! You know how nervous I get before my conference presentations and at those the audience is usually about 20 people, haha.

    Also, I have the same bikini you're wearing (from Forever21, right?) and I love the fact that my bikini is now famous! :D You look amazing in it and I love the way they did your hair. xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you my lovely. :) It was so much fun and I don't really know what happened in my head as I was nervous ahead of it, but then as soon as I got there, everything seemed so natural and fun. :) And yes, "your" bikini has been on tv haha. It's from Forever 21. It's so nice and the fit is good. :) You're so clever to have the presentations in front of a lot of people as well. It's a different kind of scneario, so to me that sounds really daunting. xxx

      Delete
  4. What an amazing experience, you'll never forget it! You all looked so comfortable and confident on the sofa, I'm in awe! Such a good thing to do and make people aware of.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for your kind words. :) I'm glad you thought so. It certainly is something I'll never forget and it was for something I believe so much in as well. :) xx

      Delete
  5. Being a plus size without the confidence it's amazing to see ladies like yourself. I didn't think it fair for them to keep saying you're brave. slim women aren't 'brave' for wearing bikinis? Your strong, beautiful confident and probably and that's enough. (Your probs brave too but it doesn't have to be to do this if that makes sense?) X

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Awww thank you so much for your very wise and well chosen words. I do agree with you! I wear my bikini because I have every right to do so and the thing is, whenever I do wear one nothing ever happens. No one gives a damn about it. It's just so much fear in ourselves and the prejudice that is being fed to us through media that ruins things which is a shame. :) Thanks for reading and commenting. It's greatly appreciated. :)

      Delete
  6. Mookie you and the others were amazing, I was disappointed you and Hollie didn't get to give much of a answer when Philip and Holly questioned health but as it is a short segment it was a bit obvious that would happen. Anyway you were all fantastic, looked amazing, confident and happy, great ambassadors for the plus size community.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you lovely, it makes me all teary reading all the nice things all of you are saying. :) There were so much we wanted to say, but then again, just by us being there is a huge statement so we were happy. :)

      Delete
  7. Well done you! I'm so proud of you! xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much my lovely. :) It means everything to me that my closest and dearest are proud of me :) Love you <3

      Delete
  8. Wow what an amazing experience - thank you to all of you for being an absolute inspiration and making me feel better about myself. x

    ReplyDelete
  9. It's not something I usually watch but with a small baby I get stuck to the sofa quite a lot during feeding time, and on that particular day I happened to see you all on there. I thought you all came across really well, what a fantastic experience! :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. I'm so glad this experience went well. And I love your blue swimsuit - fabulous!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I watched and I was so happy to see you on tv. You guys did well.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I saw you on This Morning and I thought you guys were great, you all looked fabulous and held yourselves really well! x

    ReplyDelete
  13. What a cool experience. It's awesome that you weren't too nervous! I'm glad you were able to discuss some important issues.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I love your calm approach about all this - most other people would be showing off and making a fuss but you just went with the flow. You did brilliantly on the show and I am super proud of you <3 <3 <3

    ReplyDelete
  15. Wow! What a fantastic experience to have! I admire your confidence, I do. I have never, ever, had the body confidence to wear a bikini all by myself let alone on national tv - hats off to you! Respect. :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Well done to all of you guys, it was so fabulous seeing you on the telly!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Well done you. I wouldn't have been brave enough (in fact I've never worn a bikini), but I think it's important that people shouldn't feel worried about doing so.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Absolutely amazing well done you and I love your bikini x

    ReplyDelete
  19. Wow that must have been amazing, you are very brave. There is NO way i'm going on tv in a bikini or swimsuit.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Wow, how amazing to have been on TV. What a great experience! I would have loved to meet Trinny too.

    ReplyDelete
  21. You look stunning! Well done you, we need more girls like you out there.

    ReplyDelete
  22. You all looked amazing and it sounds like you had a fantastic day too.x

    ReplyDelete
  23. I actually clicked on the link so I could read your link and then proceeded to watch the entire show you were on and girl you did good. I can't tell you how proud I am for you to be so comfortable in your own skin because honestly I could learn a lot from you. I am so insecure about my body and the way I look that sometimes I feel miserable but I need to accept that I am naturally slim.

    ReplyDelete
  24. This sounds like such an interesting and amazing experience x

    ReplyDelete
  25. Sounds like a great experience! Im jealous that you got to meet philip :D Well done x

    ReplyDelete
  26. I missed this as I am at work at that time. Well done for being featured.

    ReplyDelete
  27. well done you! and everyone else. i saw glimpses of this whilst i was at work and from what i saw, it was inspiring.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Yes!! I tuned in on the day to see you on This Morning, what an amazing thing to do, you were so confident and look beautiful. Getting professional hair and make up done is just a dream isn't it?! I'd have been taking loads of photos too. Thank you so much for doing this and representing, it made me so happy to watch you ladies doing your thing :) xx

    ReplyDelete
  29. Fantastic! This appearance will help yoour blog boosts!

    ReplyDelete
  30. Wow, what an amazing experience - love the selfies with Phil and Holly!

    ReplyDelete