Phenomenons; More To Love.
Interview w/Peppi & Mimmi.
The summer of 2009, without faces or real names the blog of More To Love kicks off as a project between two friends who want to keep in touch in while the other half is staying as an exchange student in Slovenia leaving the other half to the safe soil of Finland. Months pass by and the blog turns into the finest of Finnish blogs meanwhile promoting the message of fat acceptance. The writers are now more widely know ledged by the stage names of Mimmi & Peppi. “We’re fat and we love it”, the girls state out. “Lovely and fat.”DO, LOVE, ENJOY, REPEAT.
The blog of More To Love and the projects surrounding it employ the girls full time. They’re hosting an own radio show at Spin FM and an own column at Miss Mix magazine in while they’re also the new commercial faces of the shopping mall Forum at the centre of Helsinki. Their success indicates that the world is a playground where the fatties are now ready to play in! The girls are still mostly loved for their brave and positive attitude.
“No matter what size you are and what kind of a person you are you can enjoy life”, Mimmi compresses the message behind their blog. “Do now, not tomorrow”, Peppi adds and Mimmi nods; “You should live in the moment and experience the things you’ve always wanted to experience.” “And you should enjoy life and love everyone and overall just care about the people near you because you will get a lot from it and they will care about you in return”, Peppi says.
In where many people start blogging at young age the girls of More To Love are both way over their teenage years, therefore they have much more life experience than many other bloggers; They have experienced the pros and cons of relationships and other issues. In the other hand they’ve also seen a lot of good and amazing things. That’s the way life has moulded them into realizing every day is a new adventure.
“I think it’s interesting how some people older than us… even some people at their 40’s approach to us saying that not only until through us they have realised they should live in the moment in stead of daydreaming to the moment in the future when they would be ‘a better’ person. Why not do those things now?” Mimmi says. “We get a lot of these insights from each other too”, Peppi adds. I’m a total daydreamer and she’s as realistic as a person can be. She brings me back down to earth if I get too carried away”, she says and laughs.
What personally helps the girls to stay comfortable in their own bodies are all sorts of body creams, jewels and clothes and self pampering in general. “And also laughing to ourselves helps a lot; we’re always showing off our fat to each other or dancing half naked all hyped up. The fact that you live with yourself and you can look in the mirror and accept what you are, that you can make humour out of it and kid about yourself and your appearance. Then there are the days when we just lay in an X position and listen to love songs in a whole world of our own helps too because you have to stop to think about things, too”, Peppi says and grins.CARPE DIEM
The blog was originally created only as a sense of correspondence in real time between its writers but to this date it has gained thousands of readers from young to old, girls to boys, men to women and thin to fat. “I think it’s a common misunderstanding that most of our readers are chubby. Everyone wrestles with self esteem problems sometimes and that’s why everyone can get something from us”, Mimmi says. “People in different sizes and people that are different in general write to us very often saying they’ve gotten some sort of positive energy from us and that they’ve started to think things differently” Peppi says and smiles. “Our readers are amazing and I love when they approach us. Almost every day someone comes to talk to us and we love it”, Peppi says.
The girls exposed their faces somewhat a month after launching the blog, but at that point they were already known not by their own names but the names Mimmi and Peppi. “It would’ve been weird to change names after that”, Peppi says and adds that they also call each other Mimmi and Peppi.
Their stage names as well as their style of writing and thinking stayed, but the amount of readers grew in sight. The success behind their blog still ain’t all about their weight. Even though they have disclosed fat acceptance the More To Love phenomenon is way much more about their view on life. “I’d say that even if I did lose 30 kilos right now I’d always be fat in my soul”, Mimmi says and laughs. “I did lose 30 kilos but I did it all for myself and that’s the way it should be. Everything you do you’ve got to do for yourself” Peppi says and Mimmi continues where Peppi left off; “Not because someone else is annoyed by the fact that you’re fat. You don’t need to lose weight because you’re bullied at school; you need to lose weight if you feel like you should.” “If you’re comfortable the way you are; you can dress the way you like, you love your life and you’re really enjoying it, why should you make yourself miserable just to lose weight for someone else or start daydreaming that you’d be way happier if you were thin? Because everyone makes own life whatever it is”, Peppi sums up.
Fat people are often judged by other people, challenged in life and in the job market, because fat is a term often linked to other things such as indolence and bad health. When entering a new crowd, a fat person has to constantly think about other people's reactions to one's own appearance. “I’m annoyed by the ideas of fat people not taking care of themselves and being dirty because of being fat. Showering only depends on the person and I at least feel like I only take more care of myself and my hygiene than a lot of other people”, Peppi says. “I’m pissed off by the negative adjectives linked to fat people, that they’re dirty and sick”, Mimmi continues and Peppi nods; “If you have a flu of course it’s only because you’re fat and not because you’ve wet your feet in the snow”, she says with a sense of irony in her voice. “The fatness is always the reason to everything.”
Today giggling and laughter fill the space the girls are sitting in and it’s hard not to notice the positive vibe they infect everyone in the room with. “We’ve tried to keep our blog positive as well, because we get those ugly-, fat- and disgusting- days too and we want to keep our blog away from that sort of vibe”, Mimmi says.
What strikes about these girls and this blog are not only the fashion aspects of it, nor their highlighted fat acceptance, but their new found understanding of seizing the day and accepting everyone the way they are. Today is the first day of the rest of your life and this is the perfect day to do whatever it is you’ve always wanted to do.
THE PHENOMENON -SERIES
Traci Hines wanted to ask More To Love:
“I love what you stand for and the message you are spreading for women! I have many friends that wear XL sizes that find it hard to find fashionable clothing due to their size. They are extremely stylish, so it can be discouraging for them to not be able to fully exercise their fashion sense when shopping and dressing. What is your favourite thing to wear and why? And where can others find similar items?”
More To Love answered:
“Accessories are our favourites. They can change clothes completely. We love girly skirts. Where to find clothes… You should go to the basic shops to see if they have your size because you can quite often be surprised by how many stores actually have XL or XXL sizes these days. Combine clothes with other things, use belts, try things and highlight different parts in your body that you think are beautiful. Use your hair and make up to brighten your style and remember the entity; a pretty dress doesn’t count if the rest of your accessories won’t suit you. It’s the entity that counts.”Text: Joanna Tzortzis.
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