This Is Me is an event that challenges the sexist narrative surrounding female beauty and conformity. The event brings together 20 women of diverse ages, body types, ethnic backgrounds, and gender experiences to (role) model their true selves on stage and share their journeys, in order to subvert and challenge the narrow standards of beauty and femininity imposed on women by society.
The event also serves as a platform for social enterprises that support social and justice causes to sell goods and create awareness with the audiences.
All funds raised by the event are directed to a not-for-profit social enterprise called Full Circle, which supports disadvantaged children in India with leadership skills to help them break the intergenerational cycle of poverty. The event is entirely volunteer-run and women-led, and will feature performances by women who are ready to express themselves through art, music, and dance.
This Is Me encourages women to embrace who they are and share their greatness with the world.
About us
Your value is not diminished by someone’s inability to see your worth.
Th!s is Me launched in 2020 with a handful of volunteers and a dream to make a difference in the way women see themselves. It was meant to be a once off event, instead it became bigger and more powerful than we could imagine.
Three hundred people came to Collingwood Town Hall on International Women’s Day in 2020. Many of them moved by the stories of our models and all of them experienced something that opened their eyes in new ways.
We wanted to replicate the transformational outcomes for women as part of this vision and idea. More than that, we want the new chapters in our story to be written through the collective efforts of all who stand behind us and with us in the journey toward self-acceptance, self-love and acknowledging our worth as women.
OUR MODELS
Today I asked my body what she needed, she whispered, could you love me, just like this.
Our (role) models are every day women with stories and some scars. We have lived lives where we have overcome our own inhibitions, deconstructed our souls and tried to put them together again. We are trans, women with disabilities, neuro diverse, older, younger, plus size, underweight, survivors of violence, women of colour, mothers, daughters, sisters, friends. We don’t let our labels define us or contain us. There is more to us than you can imagine. Come and see for yourself.
SAFE SPACES
Our models only share the stories they feel comfortable to share. We applaud their vulnerability but we also hold space for their own journey.
AUTONOMY
Our models choose what they wear, some have their own outfit in mind, some choose to be dressed by designers, others create their own outfits.
OUR EVENT
Our event welcomes social enterprises, artists and vendors who are allies for women.
Our event is hosted at Collingwood Town Hall, on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. We extend our platform to others who share our vision of a world where women can uncover the greatness in themselves.
We are a social enterprise
Leadership Academy
Th!s is me is an annual fundraiser. All our profits from the event are directed toward our parent not for profit social enterprise, Full Circle. All of our committee members, models and most of our partners are volunteers, we don’t derive any income from what we do. We do it because we love it.
The mission of Full Circle Social Enterprises is to create opportunities for girls and children who are from disadvantaged communities in India to have access to education and leadership programs so that they have an opportunity to thrive.
We pay our artists and our small community businesses out of respect and mutual partnership. Our participating social enterprises stalls on the day keep their own profits and do not have to pay a fee for participating at the event.