32-year-old Elizabeth Sneed has been passionately following her mission to make surfing an all-body-type sport since 2017. The Arizona-born realized the need for body positivity in the sport when she shifted to Hawaii and began surfing at 26. Eventually, Sneed started Curvy Surfer Girl, an Instagram page to change perception in the surfing industry.
On April 26, curvy surfer Elizabeth Sneed appeared in a conversation with Yahoo! Life’s body image series, It Figures. She talked about how female surfing was mostly imagined for skinny and tanned women. Sneed also shared the events that led her to start the body positivity movement in surfing.
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Elizabeth Sneed promotes self-acceptance and not weight loss in surfing
As per Yahoo, in the conversation, Sneed shared that when she first started her amateur attempt at surfing in Hawaii, she would feel left out. She felt discouraged, looking at other female surfers who belonged to a skinny body type. Sneed said that her curvy body did not align with the pre-existing perception of female surfing, which made her question her athletic capabilities.
She expressed the disparity she noticed. “You just are implanted with this idea that once you have a certain body type, you no longer do those things. Those are not for you. And for you to rejoin the acceptable masses, you need to look like this to do it.”
Furthermore, Sneed shared that she gained weight due to an autoimmune condition at 21. Hence, she accepted herself as the “big girl,” anywhere she went. However, she did not stop herself from performing several activities. The female surfer was always ready to challenge her mind and body.
However, when she began surfing, she noticed that there lacked a sense of encouragement for the endeavors of curvy people. This led her to start an Instagram page in 2020. It was “Curvy Surfer Girl,” a safe space for surfers of all body types and sizes. The main motto of her page was to make surfers feel comfortable, confident and uplifted. Moreover, it helped Sneed in accepting herself.
She told in the interview, “It is the raw authenticity that is representative of me in this space and time. And it really and truly was very liberating,” Today, Sneed inspires nearly 250,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok combined. She shares documentaries of her failures and victories, making people inclusive of her journey.
In her body positivity mission, Sneed noticed another aspect that needed attention.
Elizabeth Sneed broke societal norms in swimwear
In the interview, Sneed explained that the lack of representation of athletes in bigger bodies has created a lack of attires that catered to their sizes. She told, “women in this demographic haven’t had access to this because of beauty standards and myths that women above a certain size can’t surf.” She realized it was necessary for curvy surfers to also have access to comfortable athletic attires.
Hence, recently Sneed launched Curvy Surfer Girl active swimwear collection with JOLYN, a swimwear brand. It features 15 pieces in sizes XS-4X as the most expansive collection of plus active swimwear to date.
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At last, Sneed added that irrespective of our body types, we all must have the zeal to go out and explore the world.
Written by
Edited by
Akash Pandhare