Katie Piper has said women can experience “huge amounts of guilt” when it comes to self-care.
In an interview with Women’s Health UK, the 40-year-old TV presenter said she has prioritised her mental health and begun to understand the importance of taking time to look after herself in the last decade.
Piper, who suffered life-changing burns in an acid attack in March 2008, has spent many years advocating for burns victims and set up a charity to support them.
Reflecting on her change of perspective on self-care, she told the magazine: “In the last 10 to 15 years, I’ve prioritised my mental health and really understood that self-care isn’t this wishy-washy made-up thing.
“Sadly, I’ve realised that self-care can be attached to huge amounts of guilt for women.
“We all celebrate selfless women, women that we believe put others first. So when they’re looking after everybody else and not themselves, we congratulate them.
“And I think this is flawed because that leaves us empty.”
The mother of two admitted she has struggled with her body image over the years but encouraged other women to treat their bodies as their “best friend”.
She said: “The human body is amazing, and it can do so many things, and it can come back from so many dark, difficult places, but we must be kind to it.
“We must assist it. We must partner with it, both mentally, physically, and psychologically.
“We mustn’t be unkind. We mustn’t make it an uphill struggle. We mustn’t berate it and put it down.
“And although I suppose I am still a young woman at 40, I have that lived experience to know that you know we will all age, and we will all struggle, and we will all fight at some point, but your body will become your best friend.”
After surviving an acid attack at the age of 24, the former model has been open about her journey dealing with the subsequent complications and made a Channel 4 documentary in 2009 called Katie: My Beautiful Face.
Piper was left partially blind, with severe scarring to her face, chest, neck, arm and hands, after sulphuric acid was thrown in her face.
She founded the Katie Piper Foundation a few months after the documentary aired to support burns victims and has undergone more than 250 operations over the past decade.
Piper said that after the attack her hair became her “crown” as her face was continuously changing.
“My hair was the only way I could communicate and express to the world how I was feeling,” she said.
“My hair is my armour, my hair is my strength, my hair is my way of communicating with the public.
“I found this whole new community in a world that I hadn’t felt a part of for a long time, in the beauty world.
“I don’t want to sound superficial, but my hair is connected to my confidence – and it’s not in a frivolous or vanity way – but a good hair day gives me that sass to feel more assertive, more in control, to feel sexy, to feel pretty, and that’s okay.”
The mother of two also hosted a podcast, Katie Piper’s Extraordinary People, in which she chatted with inspirational people who have turned adversity into positivity, and is also a panellist on ITV’s Loose Women.
In 2021, she was made an OBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours list for her services to charity and victims of burns and other disfigurement injuries.
The full Katie Piper interview is available on the Women’s Health UK website now.
