Melodie Michelberger is an author and body positivity activist from Hamburg. After many years of great dissatisfaction and constant robbing of her body to conform to common beauty ideals, she has discovered the love for herself. And this love is contagious! At least, that's how it felt when we talked to Melodie about new beginnings and self-care. Her charisma and message is overwhelmingly positive - a true inspiration!

After the strenuous Corona years, we at cicé have the feeling that there is a real sense of optimism. What are you particularly looking forward to this year?

Yes, that's how I feel too! All of a sudden the ideas are bubbling up and I don't even know what to start with first. Most of all, I'm looking forward to spending a few weeks in Iceland. That is my Happy Place, which makes me happy and grateful every time.

Let's talk about self-care! What we do at cicé is just one facet of it. What's the first thing you think of when you hear "self-care"?

For me, self-care has less to do with beauty routines and more to do with self-care. So being emphatic and gentle with myself. And paying attention to what I need to get through the day well. For many years I didn't listen to my body's signals, starved rather than ate, and worked until I dropped. Today, it's not so easy to take good care of myself, eat enough and take regular breaks without having a guilty conscience, because I still have this self-optimization nonsense in my head.

After countless diets, you emancipated yourself from the ideal image that our society has of the female body. Was that a gradual process or was there a key experience?

I went on my first diet when I was 12 and then slipped into an eating disorder and anorexia pretty quickly. The feeling of not being slim enough and for that reason not being good or beautiful enough has been with me my whole life. It put me under so much pressure that I didn't even realize myself how badly I was treating my body. It wasn't until about eight years ago that my attitude towards my body slowly changed and I began to develop a new perspective on it. At that time, I was on sick leave for a long time due to burnout and realized in one of the many therapy sessions that I was pretty lucky that my body still was, even though I had been so crappy to it for many years. That realization did something to me. It was new to look at myself lovingly and not dismissively. Since then, I've been trying to make friends with my body. I don't think I'm fantastic every day, but I don't hate myself constantly anymore and that feels really good.

Today, you don't do things to meet the expectations of others, but because you feel like it. What role does sport play in this for you?

For me, sports were for many years a tool to punish my body when it didn't look the way I wanted it to. I never did sports because I enjoyed it; the goal was always to change and slim my body. But since childhood there was also this dream to learn figure skating, but I never dared to realize it. The voice in my head always found a reason why I couldn't do it - too old, too fat, not athletic enough. Now a few years ago I actually started to train figure skating in the club and it is the most wonderful thing ever. It makes me happy to skate across the ice with the blades and I am sometimes amazed myself at what I can already do.

You've been a fan of our Cleansing Foam for years, and luckily for us, you've been an ambassador for our company since 2023. What do you like about cicé?

I love the Cleansing Foam! I have very sensitive and redness-prone skin and was looking for a gentle but thorough cleanser. Ever since Hanna (Schumi) recommended your Cleansing Foam to me, I've been a cicé fan! I really appreciate your expertise when it comes to the ingredients of your products, but I like even more that you also make the trappings of your brand equal and fair. You give back more than you should and that's wonderful!

Get more insight into Melodie's life and her valuable work here: Melodie Michelberger