Embrace Your Genes

So it's been a while since I've commented on True Life. But I like to drop in every now and then to give you a heads up about things that I'm really excited about.  First of all, I would like to thank everyone who has taken time to make comments and contribute to this ongoing dialogue that True Jeans supports about fashion and style on our True Life blog.  True Life is becoming a really meaningful community, and yes... we are listening.

I am really excited to announce that True Jeans has recently signed an agreement as a core sponsor of the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), which is the leading non-profit group in the fight against eating disorders. In January, we will be launching a campaign with NEDA called EMBRACE YOUR GENES to promote a healthier appreciation of the unique bodies that we've all be given, and to call attention to the growing epidemic of eating disorders which are seriously affecting thousands of people. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rates of any mental illness. Prior to my recent involvement with NEDA, I was pretty naïve about how serious an issue eating disorders are. Last week I attended a benefit dinner for NEDA that was very educational and inspiring. Actor Jamie Lynn Siegel from the Sopranos was recognized for her ongoing support of NEDA and for the attention and awareness she has brought to this issue.

Dove was also recognized for Campaign for Real Beauty, a powerful voice in promoting healthier body images for women in a world that constantly imposes toxic images of unhealthy and unrealistic beauty aspirations. Dove has set a great precedent for young fashion companies like True Jeans to follow, promoting a healthy version of beauty. At the dinner, they showed a recent Dove ad on a big screen that I thought was very powerful. It made me think about my daughter and the bombardment of toxic media messages that she will be faced to defend herself against. The commercial is called Dove Onslaught, and I'd like to share it with you if you haven't yet seen it. Many people in the audience that night were left in tears after watching this commercial.

Big applause for Dove.

True Jeans has its work cut out for itself. Three positive things that True Jeans is working on right now to improve in this area, which some of you may already be aware of, include:

1. Continuous research and fit testing so that we can offer our services for larger sizes (plus sizes). We already have some great plus size brands on board, which aren't quite available on our site yet, but will be soon.

2. Over the next few months we will be making efforts to integrate more diverse body types in the imagery on our website. True Jeans' goal is to help people of all body types find jeans and apparel that fit and eliminate the dressing room forever. We would like to better convey that in our imagery.

3. We're sponsoring NEDA's EMBRACE YOUR GENES campaign to promote healthier body images and join the fight against eating disorders.

Please share your ideas or feedback with us about eating disorders or the unhealthy body images that pervade the media. Have you, or someone close to you, ever been affected by eating disorders? Do you think this is a serious problem or a vanity disease? What should fashion and beauty companies do promote healthier body images?

I look forward to hearing from you, and we'll keep you posted on the upcoming Embrace Your Genes campaign.   

Sincerely,    

Romney Evans
Co-founder / CEO
True Jeans