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“I started lifting, I started gaining muscle, I started seeing changes to my body and started realizing, ‘Oh I’m actually in complete control of what I look like on the outside.’ I started to actually fall in love with my body.”īailey began competing in the International Federation of BodyBuilding & Fitness (IFBB) figure category, a step in between bikini and bodybuilding, but never felt that the category was right for her. “Lifting is what I think changed my whole perspective of everything with my body,” she said. “I just didn’t look like everyone else, and I was uncomfortable with the size of my legs and my lack of chest.”īut that self consciousness started to shift once Bailey began bodybuilding. “I spent many years growing up not liking my body, and I wasn’t out of shape, I was an athlete my whole life,” Bailey told Hungry Horse News. Even as an athlete, like many women, she struggled with body image most of her life. “It makes a connection between strong women and the many ways they’ve contributed to society at various points throughout history.”īailey, originally from Pennsylvania, began bodybuilding after her college soccer career ended in 2006.
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“It’s a cultural history about women and physical strength,” says Seattlebased author Shapley.
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The book explores the history of women and athleticism from ancient Athens to modern-day soccer fields. Her passion for the sport and for empowering women earned her a spot as one of the inspirational athletes in a new book titled “Strong Like Her” by Haley Shapley. Whitefish champion bodybuilder and Columbia Falls entrepreneur Dana Linn Bailey is dedicated to building women’s confidence by building their strength.