Author exposes myths of perfection

Rotorua author and Image and Confidence coach Leanne Mulcahy hopes to empower women with her book. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

Rotorua author and Image and Confidence coach Leanne Mulcahy will debut her book Notes to Self: On Style, Confidence and Loving Your Body this weekend hoping to spread a message of empowerment among women.

Leanne says this is her first book, and she is excited to have the opportunity to talk about it in her home town of Palmerston North on Saturday.

"Initially I am unsure what possessed me to write a book except that I wanted to share my story with women around the globe in the hope that I could inspire them to take on their imperfections and see them as the very things that make them perfect.

"Women in general seem to be so focused on what's wrong with them rather than how amazing they really are. The other reason was that nobody believed a painfully shy child with the self-esteem of a gnat could possibly stand up in front of groups and talk about style, feeling good and getting comfortable with being naked in front of a mirror," she says.

"I was constantly asked how I did it, so a book seemed the obvious mechanism to share my story. Even though I had never written a book before my desire to reach as many women as I could helped me overcome any doubts I had about becoming a published author."

Leanne has been an image coach for almost two years but says she has always had an eye for fashion.

"Prior to this I was a designer and had my own clothing design company for about seven years before opening a boutique store here in Rotorua. It was then that I began consulting with women one on one and helping them to understand that style was more about them than about their clothes. I would never let them buy something they weren't 100 per cent sure about, which they found odd and refreshing," she says.

"While I loved it, the wheels were falling off my personal life and I needed to simplify things. So, 18 months later I flew to the USA where I spent a week with a group of entrepreneurial women and it was then I defined what I wanted this new business to look like."

Leanne says she has made a business that focuses on creating life-lasting changes in the area she is most familiar with.

"I know the power that clothes have. They can make you feel alive, sexy, confident but for many women clothes are confusing and can make them feel like crap which impacts their entire day. It's like we have forgotten how to dress.

"Kids are especially good at deciding what to wear, they base their decision on things they love ... it's simple.

"However as we grow up we let our environment, others opinions and our desire to 'fit-in' dictate how we dress and how we look, ultimately becoming powerless, frustrated and overwhelmed," she says.

"I encourage the women I work with to define their style by aligning it to who they are and how they want to feel which empowers them to make their own decisions about what to wear."