'I Won't let fear silence me'

She’s the presenter-turned-actor we all fell in love with playing Tahani in HBO’s The Good Place, but Jameela Jamil is as well-known for being an equality and mental health advocate as she is for her on-screen talents. Whether it’s on Twitter or Instagram, she’s never afraid to call out people and behaviour that is damaging, bigoted or detrimental to women and those who identify as female. 

For our exclusive film, our new #TOGETHERBAND ambassador Jameela reads a poem written by film-maker Harvey Marcus. With Jameela's I Weigh campaign at its core the poem is made up from some of her most powerful quotes from her Instagram feed. In celebration of International Women's Day and UN Global Goal 5: Gender Equality. Here are 5 top reasons why she’s feminist role model we'd all love to hang out with. 

It started as a personal post to express what she “weighed” using attributes she liked about herself rather than kilos - ‘great friends’, ‘I love my job’, and ‘I’m financially independent’ were just three of them. But #iweigh promptly went viral with Jameela’s followers sending her pictures illustrating the equivalent “weight” for themselves. The I Weigh body positivity campaign is now a fully fledged movement with over 1 million followers on its Instagram account. Jameela, who suffered from an eating disorder for most of her youth, says she now doesn’t weigh herself on scales at all.

Jameela recently introduced a policy whereby she won’t allow pictures of her to be airbrushed. ‘I was given a whiter face, a little English nose and perfect skinny thighs. It makes me feel gross,’ she said in the February 2019 issue of Red Magazine, which featured her in natural totally untouched pictures. ‘I’m sorry to anyone who ever saw pictures of me like that and wanted to be thin like me.’ Jameela has also called for airbrushing to be made illegal, citing it as a ‘crime against women’.

Whether it’s journalists spreading hate in newspapers and online, or celebrities promoting weight-loss products on Instagram, Jameela has no problem naming and shaming those she sees doing damaging work. And while it’s always done with passion, Jameela has the class to not make it personal. ‘I don’t hate those girls,’ she told Glamour when speaking about her ongoing spat with the Kardashians. ‘I just want them to stop selling laxatives. I’m not trying to attack anyone.’

Jameela has been dating the musician James Blake since 2015. When quizzed about whether Jameela inspired his latest album in 2019, he told Billboard magazine that she was more than inspiration - she was so involved working on it that she has a credit on it. And when asked if she joined him on tour, he had a brilliant answer. ‘She’s busy speaking at the U.N. and doing way more important shit than going around with me.’

As well as her work for gender equality, Jameela is also a disability and LGBTQ+ advocate. She recently disclosed a number of chronic illnesses that she suffers from herself, including Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, or EDS, which is notoriously difficult to diagnose and whose symptoms can change on a day-to-day basis, varying from stretchy skin and loose joints to ruptured arteries. In addition, she came out as queer in January. Whatever cause she is fighting, Jameela’s motivation comes from a place of honesty and personal experience.