Spice Girl Mel B says women must stop feeling body-conscious as she fronts Pour Moi swimwear and lingerie shoot with her daughter and mum

The Leeds-born former Spice Girl joins her 24-year-old daughter, Phoenix Brown, and her mother, Andrea Brown, on a bold and striking poolside fashion shoot - actually shot at Edenbridge in Kent - for Pour Moi’s Own Your Confidence campaign, celebrating women and sharing the message that everybody deserves to feel confident, no matter what shape, size, skin tone they are.

“Back in the ‘90s there were less women who looked like me in the public eye and now there is a much bigger melting pot,” says Mel. “We just need to relax and stop putting pressure on ourselves. We need to think less about being thin and more about being fit, we need to honour our bodies and appreciate everything they do for us, even if it’s something as silly as looking at ourselves in the mirror and telling ourselves we are beautiful.”

She added that she does not compare herself to her younger Spice Girls’ body. “I am never going to have the body I had as a teenager, but this body has given me three children, it’s been through a lot of ups and downs, so I’m very grateful to this body. It’s harder staying in shape but I feel so much better when I really push myself to exercise, to eat right and to just feel like I am totally comfortable in my skin.

“My daughter Phoenix is never happier than when she is rummaging around in my Spice Girl wardrobe - which she calls my vintage wardrobe - and I still wear catsuits, leopard pints and everything I wore back then.”

“I have always felt confident in my own skin. I was born a working-class kid in Leeds in the 1970s. My dad was black – from Nevis – and my mum was a blue-eyed English rose blonde. I was brown. My skin was different to most of the other kids I went to school with, so I had to learn very fast from a young age to be proud of who I am, to own my heritage, my fro, and my body. That’s how I’ve always felt.”

She also admits that she, like many women, has been wearing an incorrect bra size for years.

“I went into this campaign thinking I was a 34D, turns out I’m a 32DD. That proves the point that most women don’t really know their correct bra size. When you have one bra that fits, that doesn’t make your boobs spill over for a double bubble or feels too loose or too tight or shows off back fat, you do feel different because you look good in them, and your clothes look better with the right fitting underwear.”

She shares her concerns surrounding social media, saying: “We live in an era of social media where girls – and boys – are constantly comparing themselves to perfect images all the time. There is no such thing as the perfect body. We all come in different shapes, sizes, colours, skin tones and all of them are beautiful.”

See Pour Moi’s Own Your Confidence campaign here: https://www.pourmoi.co.uk/own-your-confidence

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