“My body my choice” and other illustrated digital stickers aim to promote women’s empowerment

Illustrators Alice Bowsher, Saskia Pomeroy, Alec Doherty, Toby Triumph and Owen Gildersleeve have created sets of digital stickers to promote women’s empowerment. The To The Girls sticker pack curated by women-run artists agency Grand Matter aims “use creativity for a good cause” with all profits going to Girl Up, a UN Foundation initiative.

Phrases such as “my body my choice”, “riots not diets”, “pit hair don’t care”, “chicks before d**ks” and “free the nipple” feature in the jubiilant series alongside female characters striking strong and playful poses. With the project, Grand Matter says it wants to encourage discussion on the themes, covering everything from “everyday confidence and empowerment to ownership over one’s body”, with each artist given the freedom to interpret a range of phrases and sentiments.

Not every message made it through Apple’s filters though, the agency says. “What we’ve created is a sticker pack with progressive content for the women’s movement; we did have to drop some of the more impactful designs to pass Apple’s approval process, which we feel is indicative of the challenges we are trying to overcome, but reiterates the importance of these kinds of projects.

“One of the hardest things was the tone; to be relevant and honest but without being negative or missing the mark.”

The pack is unified by a colour scheme, but allows for each illustrator’s style to come through. Alice Bowsher says the topic “felt quite intuitive to me and so I got to put a lot of myself into the illustrations. It’s exciting to be part of something that will have a positive impact for girls.”

The stickers are now available to download for iOS via the App Store, with all profits donated to Girl Up.