Brittany Calaluca is a graduating exercise and sport science major at NSU. In 2014, she spoke at TEDxNSU about “Rising above the Magazine Covers,” to discuss her experience with fitness, Photoshop and health perceptions of society.
I’m an escaped prisoner. Not the normal type of prisoner you may come across, but I fled from a prison of expectations. I was an anxious soul with a strong arm and chain for control over my own body. I shared this sentencing with other people seeking the same fate I was. Fortunately, they soon joined me on the journey to escape from the social jail we had succumbed to.
I had mountains of magazines with women I dreamt to look like, I had the nutrition background to know what to eat, and, as a trainer, I knew how to train my body for every inch of it. As a young woman figuring out this world, there was one thing I was always seeking. I was looking for a life that I could live without a ball and chain attached to my leg.
After a series of events, such as the preparation for a bikini competition, food obsessions and a Photoshop class, it came to my attention that perfection was not obtainable, and anything close to it would be short lived or technologically created. As a fitness professional, it became my mission to air out the industries “dirty laundry” of diets, obsessions and Photoshop capabilities in creating the image of fitness modeling.
Rawk Sport and Fitness, my no-Photoshop magazine and small business was created as a release of the “Social Flexpectations” in the fitness industry and general culture. I began the magazine to give myself, and the many people I have encountered, a reason to question what they see on the magazines claiming to show “health.” I wanted people to start seeing themselves as healthy beings without the approval of six pack abs, or Photoshopped perfection.
I have come a long way since the beginning of my own journey and have met amazing souls who have helped me in spreading my mission. My greatest opportunity was speaking at TEDxNSU last year. My talk featured my own edited photographs and the speech of a lifetime about the experiences I have gathered in my young life so far. TEDxNSU gave me the chance to spread my wings as a public speaker and gave my mission room to grow.
It is safe to say that both men and women are affected by this issue and need to see that it’s okay to be in your own body and not what is already out there. It is time for a paradigm shift in the perception of health and beauty. I want to give other people a chance to get a look from the inside out, and a gain a sense of pride in what each of us has to offer this crazy and beautiful world with no Photoshop required.
Since I graduate from NSU this semester, for the next chapters of my life, I plan on pursuing graduate school in sports psychology and grow Rawk Sport and Fitness as a whole-bodied company. I have not “written” my path, and I can’t “edit” it either, so it looks like all of us will have to look out for the next issue of Rawk Sport and Fitness Magazine to see what else I have learned.
