We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Heather Boddy a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Heather, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
My purpose has shifted and bent along with the many different versions of me that have existed as I have grown. One thing that hasn’t changed though is the desire to help people feel seen, heard, and less alone.
I am now 34 years old and my purpose and passion is to combine fitness and health with pop culture and fandom so that it feels more accessible. My goal to build community in fitness comes from a personal experience where fitness was my enemy.
I started my fitness journey from a very negative place – I was punishing my body for what it looked like. For some backstory, I have been an actress since I was 14. I studied acting in high school and I have a BA in Theatre with a focus in Shakespeare performance. I moved to New York with grand ideas of becoming a working actor but my dreams were quickly shattered by the way my body was treated by the industry. I have always existed in a larger body and I had always played very “matronly roles” even in high school. The reality check hit when I moved to NYC and realized I hadn’t really played a role that was age appropriate for me.
Casting directors would say I was too fat to play the leading lady, too thin to be the caricature actor (the fat funny one). I was lumped in to be a “Melissa McCarthy type” even though I don’t look or act like her at all. Just the shape of my body.
The comment that pushed me over the edge was when a Casting Director told me that she liked me and thought I was talented but that she had never seen a casting breakdown come across her desk that she thought I would be good for. Essentially meaning I was “uncastable.”
Now, this was 11 years ago at this point and the industry has changed a little… but it’s still not great.
All of this to say that, for the first time in my life, I was blaming my body for not getting work. And so I started going to the gym to shrink myself in order to be cast. And guess what, it worked! But I was miserable. I hated going to the gym and I had no idea what I was doing. I was following Pinterest workouts and trying fad diets. I hated working out, I hated my body, and I was punishing myself for not fitting into the societal standard set for women.
Fast forward a few months into this toxic relationship. I was flipping through a Marvel encyclopedia and discovered a comic book character named She-Hulk. She was LARGE and GREEN and weighed 650lbs! I was very impressed and started reading her comic books right away. Luckily there was a comic run of hers being released at the time and it was amazing! The run was called “Law and Disorder” written by Charles Soule.
Around this same time, I had started an at-home workout program that focused on core strength and flexibility, something I felt I had been missing at the gym.
These two discoveries happening at the same time completely changed my life. I found She-Hulk to be very inspiring and I started channeling her in my workouts. She-Hulk was the first woman who I had seen who chose to be large and different on purpose because it made her feel more empowered. I soaked up her empowerment and let it bleed over into my life, specifically in my workouts. The workout program was focused on listening to your body and going at your own pace which wasn’t something I had encountered in fitness before. Through this combination, I absolutely changed my relationship with fitness and with my body. I became more focused on listening to my body and challenging what I was capable of. I was feeling more empowered to work out and get stronger, rather than seeing fitness as a punishment for the way I looked.
So, I decided to get certified as a fitness professional to help people realize that fitness CAN feel fun and good and it doesn’t have to be a punishment for the way you look!
And that combination of a comic book character with the workout program made me realize that I could use other characters or worlds of pop culture to make fitness feel more fun and accessible to people who feel like they don’t “fit in” at the gym.
And THAT is how I discovered my passion and purpose.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am a classic multi-hyphenate! As I mentioned earlier, I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Theatre so the goal was to be an actor. And I do still consider myself an actress but that degree also gave me many of the skills I need for the other things I do today.
I became a fitness professional and I teach exercise classes at gyms in NYC. However, I also have my own workout program called Geeknasium. Geeknaisum is an online virtual workout library (think Netflix but for fitness) with over 80 workouts themed in pop culture and fandom. The workouts immerse you into the worlds of the characters you love so that it feels less like working out and more like play. However, the workouts are also challenging so it’s not just a walk in the park. It’s play that also helps you feel strong and challenges what you are capable of.
The content I make as a cosplayer and the workouts I film for Geeknasium have turned me into a digital creator. Fun fact, I was asked to be on a panel about being a digital creator at Dragon Con last year and I emailed them back saying they had the wrong gal because they couldn’t mean me! In his response, the moderator said “aren’t you the one who has the nerdy workouts online?” And I was like “oh yeah that’s me!” And he said, “then yup, you’re a digital creator!”
Speaking of, I am also a host and public speaker. I host trivia all around NYC and I have 2 podcasts (one of which is on indefinite hiatus). The podcast currently up and running is Mental Health Multiverse. I co-host it with my good friend and trauma-informed recovery coach Marisa. In Mental Health Multiverse we discuss pop culture and media through the lens of mental health and healing. I have also spoken publicly at events as both a moderator and panelist. I mostly go to comic conventions but I’ve also spoken on theater and health and wellness panels as well. I also guest speak on podcasts and other channels and have spoken about everything from body image, to fitness, to my love for cosplay and more.
If you’re reading this and would like to reach out for a speaking engagement or are interested in finding out more about Geeknasium, you can find me on instagram @heatherboddy or @geeknasium – I’ll also be listing out the cons I’ll be attending in 2024 on my instagram too, if you’d like to try and catch me in person. If you’re in NYC, you’re in luck! I have a couple live Geeknasium workouts planned for 2024 in the city. You can also check out the Geeknasium library and find a 14-day-free trial on my website: www.heather-boddy.com
You can also feel free to reach out if you have any questions. I love connecting with people. DM me on Instagram or use the contact form on my website!
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge most impactful to my journey are as follows:
1. Learning about how your physical appearance doesn’t equate to your physical health and that health comes in all shapes and sizes. I had to do a lot of unlearning about diet culture, fatphobia, and other ways we are made to feel inadequate when it comes to our bodies.
– I read the book “Health at Every Size” by Lindo Bacon at the start of my fitness career and it blew my mind!
– I learned about how food restriction can actually lead to weight gain. I learned about body “set points” and how our bodies crave homeostasis. I learned about how the BMI is bulls**t and was invented so that Health Insurance companies could make more money (especially off of low income people)
– I learned the origins of racism in anti-fatness (Read “The Body is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self Love” by Sonya Renee Taylor and “Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fatphobia” by Sabrina Strings)
– In addition to my love for She-Hulk, the above findings were crucial to my healing my relationship with my body
I use this knowledge to speak publicly about the importance of creating and celebrating diversity in cosplay, fitness, and the media.
– Examine your own biases when it comes to fitness and health, see what you can learn.
2. When it comes to motivation in fitness, exploring as much as you can about what you like, what your body likes, and what feels naturally motivating to you will help SO much!
– When I was first starting out in fitness, I was forcing myself to run on the treadmill and didn’t realize that I actually hated it. I found ways to make it tolerable and more enjoyable like watching my favorite tv shows or listening to fun podcasts and motivating music. But I never actually LIKED running. Now I know this about myself and have found other ways to incorporate cardio into my life that my body enjoys more.
– Don’t be afraid to try new things, get a free trial, pay the introductory rate to try a new studio, the only way to find out what you like is to explore
– And of course, community can also be very motivating. Find like minded people who share your philosophies in fitness and your motivation will skyrocket! (This is also why I love Geeknasium, the community I’ve built makes me tear up when I think about it)
3. The right people will find you and follow you and love you.
– This one is hard because not everyone in your life will be supportive of your journey. That is okay… you don’t have to share everything with these people.
– By living authentically and speaking your truth and your joy, they right people will find you and support you.
It might not happen overnight but your people are out there, I promise! (As long as you aren’t hurting, harming, or causing pain to anyone, of course!)
If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?
The current challenge I am facing is my relationship with social media – instagram in particular.
Over the last year, I have found myself falling into the comparison trap for sure. Cosplayers whose accounts I have watched grow to over 10K followers, Fitness professionals who get asked to speak at events I’d like to speak at… sometimes it all feels too much.
What I tell myself when I am feeling this way is that their success takes absolutely nothing away from me! In fact, I am all about collaboration over competition any day. When I am feeling that comparison or jealousy come up, I challenge myself to examine what it is saying about me. “Oh, this is teaching me something about what I want.” Or maybe it’s teaching me something about what I thought I wanted, or a goal I let go of. Then, after examining that feeling, I always look for ways to be happy for the other person and move to higher vibrations. These high vibrations might be me shouting out the person on my instagram stories or commenting on their post congratulating them. Once I’ve examined my own feelings, these interactions are not coming from a place of envy but from a place of sincerity.
I especially struggled with this last year when I was feeling very insecure in a romantic relationship. I started posting for likes and validation that I wasn’t getting inside of that relationship. When you post seeking external validation, it doesn’t feel good. So, instagram felt very icky for me for part of last year.
I’ve recently made a proclamation on my account that I am going back to posting from my passion and my purpose. It’s less about that validation and comparison and more about posting content that resonates. Since making that switch, I have felt much better about how and what I’m posting and trying to untangle any of my feelings from the outcome and metrics.
A quote that has really helped me is:
“A flower does not think to compete with the flower next to it, it just blooms.” – Unknown
Contact Info:
- Website: https://heather-boddy.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heatherboddy
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/482957442471972/?ref=share
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/HeatherBoddy
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@mentalhealthmultiverse
- Other: Podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mhmthepodcast, Geeknasium 14-DAY-FREE-TRIAL: https://app.arketa.co/geeknasium/pricing
Image Credits
Pauline Shapiro, Katie Fink, Jacob Moats, Jonathan Modest
