TWO students have teamed up with fashion designer Joey Bevan to explode the body confidence myths peddled by social media sites and magazines Joey, whose fashion career started at the Southend YMCA pop up charity shop, is working with Kelsey Hibbard and Eleanor Bleach for the Dove Be Real, Body Confidence campaign.

The campaign hopes to change attitudes to body image and help people put health above appearance.

Joey, 29, from Basildon, said he had suffered from issues with confidence, but as he began working in the fashion industry he realised there was no such thing as perfect.

He said: “I realised the most beautiful people had worries too. These people look like gods, but they have their own hang-ups.

“I realised there is no such thing as perfection.

“Some might say Cheryl Cole is beautiful, but someone else might say she isn’t so great. It’s all really about being confident about your personality and believing in yourself.”

Joey, who has just returned from a world tour, where he has played a part in the making of a coffee table book about the culture of make-up around the globe, added: “It’s not about how you look, but how wonderful you are deep down and how you inspire others.”

Kelsey Hibberd, 20, from Southend, felt miserable at secondary school and intentionally kept her Facebook friends to a minimum, because she knew they were the ones who wouldn’t pick on her.

She said: “Body image and body consciousness is something I’ve always been really passionate about, because it really affected me. I was a bit tall and a bit podgy and teenagers can be a bit harsh, so they pointed that out on a regular basis.”

Kelsey rebuilt her confidence by volunteering with the YMCA when she was 15 and now runs a mentoring programme called, Loud Education, which trains teachers to deal with body confidence issues.

Denise Hatton, chief executive of youth charity YMCA England, said: “Too often the way we look becomes a measure of who we are and there is a growing pressure to achieve an aesthetic ideal that few of us can live up to.”

 Body image woe

FIGURES released this week by Dove revealed: ! 16 million people in the UK are ‘depressed’ due to the way they think they look ! 18 million people do not exercise due to body anxiety ! One in four say body image has held them back from a fulfilling relationship