She’s the current World Champion but she’s rapidly becoming known for championing another realm outside of high-performance professional surfing.
Body image. Confidence. Self-acceptance. And Beauty.
In an era when female athletes are more widely lauded for their fit bodies than their sporting acumen, when Instagram followers outweigh trophies, Carissa Moore has been more vocal than most about the perils of body image obsession. Where many of her fellow competitors don cheeky bikinis and model on the side, Carissa is concerned with advancing the sport and empowering aspiring surfers who look up to her.
But her eyes weren’t always filled with such cheery self-assurance.
Growing up, Carissa struggled with her body image. It tormented her. Back in 2013, we featured Carissa in our running series, HEADSPACE, where she spoke about a range of things from true love to meltdowns to the hypersexualized female surfing scene – “I’m a little undecided,” she said. “I think it’s great that the girls in our sport are so attractive, and they’re athletes, and they rip…I’m on the opposite side of the spectrum. I’ve definitely been criticized for my looks.”
Yet she understands the reality: “we’re in a sport where you’re in a bathing suit all the time. People are going to be looking at your body.”
So her new motto? As seen in the mini video interview via Unscriptd above, “Embrace who you are. Confidence is the most beautiful thing.”
