A singer who spent £20,000 to change his looks is sharing body positivity by stripping off for an educational new programme. Liam Halewood will disrobe for the Channel Four show Naked Eduction after stuggling with body confidence.
Fronted by Naked Attraction host Anna Richardson, TV and radio presenter Yinka Bokinni and former Love Island star and mental health campaigner Dr Alex George, Naked Education aims to normalise all body types, champion people’s differences and break down stereotypes, from body dysmorphia and disabilities to mastectomy scars and penis size, to the ageing body and skin conditions. The series is made up of three strands that tackle different conversations about the body.
Liam told us: "I myself struggled for quite a number of years with confidence issues, which led to quite a bit of fakery and me getting cosmetics procedures. This led to me being a bit of a bad role model for the youth of today.
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"Going forward luckily for me I realised just after a few years that we take our looks to the grave whereas it’s our personality and the way we treat people in this world becomes our legacy. This programme concentes on the pifalls of surgery, how social media is really affecting the mental health of the youth of today and also touching upon how wrong aesthetics and surgery can go when not researched properly.
"I want to stress this isn’t war on aesthetics or cosmetic surgery, because their are many people in this world who really benefit from it, I just feel kids are striving for instagram perfection when it just is unachievable, it’s very expensive once folk have become addicted."
Liam, 36, who specialises as a Boy George tribute, has been singing since he was 18 and has performed on Canal Street and social clubs across Manchester. He began getting Botox, lip fillers, jaw alignment and hair transplants to land himself a spot on countless reality shows from E4's Bodyfixers and The Extreme Diet Hotel and the X Factor.
He reckons he was 'addicted' to having treatments for about 18 months. "Seeing everyone’s perfect results on social media made me want to get more and more. Then I realised influencer pics were filtered which made me think 'oh wait.'"
Liam is calling for a social media crackdown to make clear when a picture is filtered. "We eed to do more to be letting the public know, if your picture is filtered tell them it’s filtered," he said.
During the The Naked Exchange segment of the show Anna brings together people who have undergone similar experiences, to have a candid discussion about their body and share their stories. In Teen Talk a group of inquisitive teenagers are guided by Yinka and Dr Alex to analyse and ask questions about the naked body as they challenge their own perceptions of what they think is normal or beautiful and get answers to questions they have been afraid to ask.
And for the Naked Brigade Anna is joined by the body-positivity activists as they travel the length and breadth of the country to share their message and encourage people to join the ‘every body is beautiful’ campaign. In the show Liam strips to his boxer shorts along with five other participants as he shares his story.
At the age of 28 Liam, who auditioned for the X Factor in 2015, got into serious debt after undergoing treatments. But he is now filler-free and stopped having work done at the end of 2018.
"The people I met through this show are so inspiring and all have different journeys that I care and respect them for, and the youth on the show were so respectful and lovely," he said.
And he said about the show: "It's groundbreaking and I was the most honest in myself that I've ever been. I stood there in my boxers and talked about spending so much money on myself.
"This is aimed at championing body positivity and I spoke about my journey. Doing this was amazing. Although we were exposed in our underwear is gave me confidence.
"I'll admit I've done other shows for 15 minutes of fame but this programme opened my eyes. It is for a purpose because it will help young people and with mental health issues. It's all about educating the youth of today and I think it's very much needed."
The series starts on Channel Four tomorrow (Tuesday, April 4) at 8pm with all episodes available afterwards on All4. Liam features in the fifth episode which will be screened on Channel Four on Tuesday May 2 at 8pm.
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