EastEnders' Lucy Beale strips for new campaign to help women love their curves

26 September 2023 , 17:35

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Melissa Suffield has teamed up with Curvy Kate for a new campaign (Image: Curvy Kate)

Former EastEnders star Melissa Suffield is on a mission, and the former Lucy Beale star has stripped off for a new campaign to help more women feel confident in their underwear.

Stripping off to her lingerie for the all-new body positive campaign with beloved brand Curvy Kate, the actress-turned-self-love-influencer has become "the Bra Convert" who is now aiming to revolutionise the way women think about bras. The campaign claims that it's not our bodies that are the issues, but the bras we are wearing instead.

For those not in the know, Melissa, 30, played the role of Lucy Beale in BBC One's EastEnders from 2004 until 2010. But since leaving the soap opera, Melissa has become a content creator, with her often sharing posts on her Instagram account @the.confidentmama, that exude body confidence.

Melissa Suffield, who played Lucy Beale in EastEnders, has teamed up with Curvy Kate for a new campaign (Curvy Kate)

The mother of one is helping other women love their bodies (Curvy Kate)

It all began after Melissa welcomed her young son River just before the lockdown in 2020, with her then going on to amass over 60,000 followers and a dedicated fanbase of women after she shared snaps of her post-partum body. And now she has a following of women who adore the former soap star's honestly and rawness.

And now Curvy Kate have teamed up with Melissa to transform the bra sizes of six lucky ladies who followed the former EastEnders star on her Instagram page. But why Melissa? Well, Katie Weir from Curvy Kate told us: "Melissa inspires women each day to accept their bodies and really resonates with the mums of the world! After working with Melissa over the past few years, and bra fitting her in lockdown to find out that she was not a 36D but a 34F – her passion for lingerie and the perfect fit really became apparent."

EastEnders' Jake Wood's snap of son has fans pointing out the pair's likeness

Meanwhile, Melissa told us: "I’m really passionate about the work I’m doing. While it can seem vacuous and unimportant, social media is a huge part of many peoples daily lives now. Making sure that I’m creating a safe space for positivity, playfulness, and a healthy dose of reality, is at the core of everything I create, and being able to broaden that with this campaign is just great. There are a lot of damaging accounts, experiences, and ideas on social media, and I want to make sure that I’m the complete antithesis of that. I hope I’m succeeding!”

She went on to add how she is going with the flow and doesn’t quite know what the future will bring, “I just try to make sure I’m enjoying the journey as much as I can. And currently, I’m enjoying myself a lot,” she added.

Melissa is helping women all over the country learn to accept and love their bodies (Curvy Kate)

Melissa said that working on this campaign “felt crucial”, with her touching on how although there is better body representation across many brands, “there is still a long way to go”. She noted: “Size diversity has to include shape diversity too, and I think we included a lot of that in this campaign. I wanted to make sure that lots of women who don’t currently feel represented when shopping for clothes and underwear, could see these images and find someone that they could relate to, who have similar body features and shapes.”

She also explained how finding lingerie that fitted her properly was a real turning point in her relationship with her postpartum body. “When I stopped exclusively pumping after a year, and was feeling pretty low about how much I’d changed since giving birth, adding well fitting lingerie into my wardrobe was such a lift to my confidence. It felt like a secret weapon,” she admitted. “But I’ve never been great at keeping secrets, and so I’ve been giving that advice for the last 2.5 years now! It’s helped me appreciate my body, for sure, and it’s one of my top tips for other women who are struggling with their own body image.”

The new campaign was released today (Curvy Kate)

The starlet has posed with women who followed her online (Curvy Kate)

Melissa concluded by giving some words of wisdom to other women. She added: "Our bodies are going to change constantly throughout our lives. As we age, gain weight, lose weight, navigate illness, pregnancy, heartache, holidays, stress... we are constantly changing. So, if we’re clinging to one ideal, only happy with one very specific version of us, who may not even exist, we’re going to end up spending a lot of time utterly miserable.

"The more we focus on connecting with ourselves on the inside, the less that person in the mirror starts to matter. Because you are pure potential at every phase of your life, no matter what you look like."

Mollie Quirk