Jessamyn Stanley, a 30-year-old yogi, may be new to fame, but she’s already made an incredible impact in the wellness space. In case you’re playing catchup, the self-described “body positivity advocate,” has garnered more than 300,000 followers on Instagram, thanks to the safe place she’s created for women – specifically women of color – to embrace their love of yoga, no matter their shape or size.
“There’s definitely a visceral reaction if people don’t know who I am when they walk into my yoga classes. It’s like, they ask: ‘Oh, are you teaching class?’ and it’s very clear that they’re skeptical,” Stanley recently told Women’s Health of people doubting she could be a yoga teacher. “But that’s always the same person who can’t catch their breath during class. We all come to everything with our own assumptions about stuff, and the problem is that we don’t talk about it enough.”
This is a discussion Stanley has since begun, using social media as a powerful tool.
“To me, Instagram is like my journal in a way. I’m not trying to express a controversial opinion, but it has elicited so many strong reactions,” she added of her newfound success. “When people have a strong, negative reaction to it, it’s interesting social commentary that we all need to be paying attention to. Why are we so affected by this?”
While Stanley has since grown comfortable with all the attention, she admits that staying grounded is a daily struggle.
“One of the things I’ve been critical of is the reasons why you’ll find yourself in the spotlight, and I think that we all tend to lean toward ego and it’s something that I definitely struggle with,” she said. “I’m being very, very conscious of that because the attention is blooming at the same time that my book’s coming out and the Bai film is out and it’s a weird balance.”
In April, Stanley dropped Every Body Yoga: Let Go of Fear, Get On the Mat, Love Your Body, a book she believes breaks all the stereotypes – specifically how we define the term “fat.”
“The use of the word fat is absolutely a reclamation technique. It’s very much like the word has been used as a weapon against me, and I hear people still using it as a weapon toward themselves, toward one another, and then it doesn’t mean large, it means stupid, it means ugly, unworthy to exist. To me, to use the word fat with its designated meaning of large is not an insult, it’s just a statement of truth. I’m saying I’m fat because I am fat is the same thing as saying I’m black because I am Black.”
Of course, it’s important to Stanley that all forms of discrimination in the yoga community be addressed, especially ageism, which she feels is often ignored. “
“I think a lot of older women are very upset about the fact that the entire conversation of women’s health is really centered around young people, especially in the yoga world,” she said. “Then people associate being able to move quickly with these younger bodies because there’s so much strength and power and age. I wondered: How much of a role can I play in this and still be on the younger side?”
For more info on Stanley, her book or her services, check her out on Instagram @mynameisjessamyn.
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