Australia is a better place because of Taryn Brumfitt | Jessica Adamson
Australians have a lesson to learn from this dreadful moment, writes Jess Adamson.
Opinion
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When our 2024 Australian of the Year is revealed on Thursday night, I ask you to hold your fire.
This time last year, South Australia’s own Taryn Brumfitt stepped forward to claim the title.
She wasn’t expecting to win, nor to be posing for a selfie on our Prime Minister’s phone just minutes later.
She certainly wasn’t expecting to be in tears in a Sydney hotel room the following morning, ducking and weaving from the toxic media storm that had erupted around her.
Many of us know Brumfitt is a body image advocate, a writer, director and film maker. She’s also a mother of 4, the co- founder of The Embrace Collective, wife to local nurse, Tim, and an inspiration to millions of women, men and children worldwide.
But not everyone thought she was worthy, including media commentator Mike Carlton who led the charge on social media.
“Who??,” he asked.
“My Australian of the year would be a doctor or nurse working nights in intensive care of the ED, dealing with Covid and daily health. Real, compassionate work. For very little money.
NOT someone who makes a buck out of saying, it’s ok to be a bit fat. Good night.”
I hope we’ve learnt from that dreadful moment.
I hope Mike Carlton’s learnt that many of those doctors and nurses he mentioned are caring daily for thousands of young people living with eating disorders, depression and anxiety, because of a global epidemic of body shaming. It’s real, compassionate work, much of which could be prevented if so many of our kids didn’t hate their bodies.
This is not a drill. More than 3 in 4 Australia adolescents report feeling body image distress and the consequences are dire.
Brumfitt argues the pediatric health emergency we’re facing is directly related to body dissatisfaction and that it’s not our bodies that need to change, but our perspective.
Thankfully, the tears she cried in that Sydney hotel room this time last year were short lived.
She chose then and there to focus not on other people’s opinions, but on the children of Australia and how they view and value their bodies.
“It’s actually none of my business what people’s opinions are of me,” she says.
“People won’t like you and that’s ok.
“My mantra for the year was a quote from Steve Martin – ‘be so good that they can’t ignore you’”.
Taryn Brumfitt is difficult to ignore. She’s authentic and articulate, fearless and funny.
Her personal promise to herself, as Australian of the Year, was to leave nothing in the tank.
74 keynotes, 92 flights, 572 meetings and countless media and community appearances later – all with four children including 3 teenagers of her own – that’s a big tick.
She’s travelled the country – from Sydney to Perth, Orroroo to Alice Springs and from Gippsland to Jamestown.
Her mission for the past 12 months, was to reach one million Australian children, teaching them to embrace their bodies and celebrate the things that make them unique.
And, as of last week, she got there, by sharing the Embrace message with young people, parents, grandparents, teachers, sport clubs, the wider community and the media.
But the really hard work, Brumfitt says, starts now.
“We reached the million kids this year so that was an almighty team effort,” she says.
“But reach is just the beginning. The focus for us now is having resources in all of the environments where our children live, work and play is so that our message doesn’t come unstuck.”
Brumfitt is passionate about rolling out dynamic, evidence-based programs for children, nationwide.
Her Embrace Kids resources got a $6.2 million Federal funding boost, a sign our leaders are listening.
“We’re finally getting people to understand that when we talk about embracing our bodies, our focus is to get Australians to be happy and healthy,” she says.
“If we can get it right how they feel about their bodies it prevents them from so many of those negative behaviours.”
In October, she took her message to the White House where Prime Minister Albanese introduced her to President Joe Biden.
“Listening to him telling the President about the work I do was surreal,” she says.
“My mum suggested when I got the invitation that it was a scam, that was my mum keeping it real.”
In the same trip, Brumfitt and Embrace co-founder Dr Zali Yager screened their Embrace Kids documentary to a group of professors at Harvard and discussed their work with America’s First Lady Dr Jill Biden, a lifelong educator “who gets what we’re trying to do”.
This year and beyond, the pair will build on the momentum and continue their mission, determined to reach even more Australian kids with the help of parents and teachers.
Personally, there are 3 things Taryn Brumfitt has taught me that’ve changed the way I talk with my friends and colleagues and the way I parent my children.
The first is, that if we’re lucky, we each have about 28,000 days on this planet so let’s not waste it by being at war with our bodies.
The second, that we’re not born into this world hating our bodies, it’s something the world has taught us. So, let’s put some serious effort into unteaching that.
And the third, is to never say anything negative about our bodies or anyone else’s body, ever again.
It’s the single most powerful thing we can do for our young people.
In essence, Brumfitt wants us to talk less about what our bodies look like and more about what we can do with them.
She’s quietly hopeful that South Australia’s nominee tomorrow night, environmental
scientist Tim Jarvis AM will take the baton from her, but for whoever it is, she has some simple advice.
“Stay laser focused on your mission, there’ll be a lot of noise, don’t let it distract you, stay out of the drama – you’ll never have a year like the one you’re about to have,” she says.
“Find the people who remind you that you’re a good person doing good things and keep those people close.
“And just acknowledge that people have a lot of ideas and opinions and expectations of the Australian of the Year, but stay on course.
“I’m so glad I was able to ignore the noise and let the results of what we’ve achieved do the talking.”
As a state, we’ve punched well above our weight when it comes to these awards. Thai cave diving hero Dr Richard Harris, eye surgeon Dr James Muecke AM, fashion designer Paul Vasileff, Taboo co-founder Isobel Marshall and Barefoot to Boots founder Awer Mabil have all represented us with distinction.
Like Taryn, and our finalists this year, none of them asked to be there. They’re not self-nominated or voted in by their family and friends, they are hand-picked for their
extraordinary work and judged by the National Australia Day Council Board.
They deserve our respect and gratitude, not abuse from the cheap seats from the likes of Mike Carlton.
“This country is all about giving people a fair go and that’s what I hope we can do for the next Australian Of The Year, to give them a bit of space and time to get settled in the role, before we give them a hard time,” Taryn says.
“You don’t have to agree with the judges’ decision tomorrow night, but from someone who’s been there, let’s give them some space.”
Thank you for leading a vital national conversation, Taryn. Australia is a better place because of your work.
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