You Are Not a Before Picture: How to finally make peace with your body, for good

An urgent, enlightening and empowering guide to disavowing diet culture and learning to make peace with our bodies, from body confidence and anti-diet advocate, Alex Light.

When we look in the mirror, so many of us see a ‘before’ picture: the miserable person in the side-by-side shot waiting for the ‘glow-up’ (read: weight loss) that will bring true happiness. But it’s not our fault that we see our bodies as projects in need of constant work: this is just one of the beliefs that has been ingrained in us by diet culture. We have been taught to view ourselves as a collection of ‘problem’ areas for which the billion-dollar diet industry holds the solutions.

Step-by-step, You Are Not A Before Picture provides a framework for changing the way we view ourselves and the world around us. Working with experts in the fields of psychotherapy, fitness and nutrition, Alex empowers readers to interrogate their underlying beliefs, challenge the external and internal forces that are holding us back, and finally find freedom in our bodies, for good.

Alex Light was a number 4 Sunday Times Non Fiction bestseller in the w/e June 19th 2022

• Alex is an authoritative voice in the body confidence and anti-diet space, with a significant and engaged platform (437k Instagram, with 357k growth in the last year).

• Her posts regularly go viral for their powerful honesty and perceptiveness, and have been featured heavily in the media.

• There are some brilliant anti-diet, intuitive eating and fitness positivity books in the market You Are Not a Before Picture touches on each of these important subjects to offer a comprehensive, step-by-step framework for finding peace with our bodies.

• You Are Not a Before Picture taps into two key areas of the market: inspirational Instagram activism (What A Time to be Alone, Chidera Eggerue; Women Don’t Owe You Pretty, Florence Given) and voice-driven female/feminist self-help from authors with significant platforms (No One Can Change Your Life Except for You, Laura Whitmore; Speak Your Truth, Fearne Cotton).

• There’s an opportunity here to pitch Alex as a go-to voice to challenge toxic and fatphobic media rhetoric.

• She is incredibly well-connected and has a host of high-profile followers across the world, including Sarah Nicole Landry (@thebirdspapaya; 2 million); Sophie Hannah (@sophiehannah; 1.2 million); Anna Saccone (@annasaccone, 1.3 million).

• Alex’s newly released podcast, ‘Should I Delete That?’ reached Number 1 in the UK Apple Podcast Charts.

Competition: Body Positive Power;The F*ck it diet;Just Eat It;Women Don’t Owe You Pretty;Train Happy;Be Your Own Best Friend;Untamed;No one can change your life except for you. by;Megan Jayne Crabbe;Caroline Dooner;Laura Thomas;Florence Given;Tally Rye;Chessie King;Glennon Doyle;Laura Whitmore;Fearne Cotton