Women in Focus

Alice de Wet is the president of the New Zealand Naturist Federation, a role she never set out to take. Her own path began in South Africa and has led her, after nearly two decades in New Zealand, to a national role supporting the country's clubs. She talks to Helen about what that involves and how the law and local attitudes look from a Kiwi perspective. They also discuss what helps more women feel at home in naturism, and why encouraging more women, and especially mothers with children, matters to the whole community. With the federation's Wellington festival on the horizon, they swap thoughts on camping, comfort and how to make a festival stay a little more civilised.

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Helen talks to Kim Lariviere-Baldelli, who runs the bistro at Bare Oaks Family Naturist Park in Ontario, about what it means to belong. From a childhood where nudity was ordinary to a career that kept naturism at arm's length, Kim reflects on the pull of community, and on how a place that judges no one's appearance can completely transform the way a woman sees herself. The conversation moves through coping with illness, scarring and long struggles with body image, and the discovery that in a naturist space hardly anyone notices the things we spend years trying to hide. Together Kim and Helen consider what makes a park feel safe, why children and families thrive there, and what to say to the woman who is certain she could "never do it".

Links for Kim Lariviere-Baldelli:

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Helen talks to Ronnie Belfitt, who has been a naturist for as long as she can remember. Starting with a childhood where nudity in the home was completely normal, it was a teenage canoeing trip down France's Ardèche river that gave her her first proper look at naturism out there in the world. She and her husband joined British Naturism in 2008, drawn in by BN's now-retired weekend takeovers of Alton Towers waterpark. She and Helen compare notes on the Women in Naturism holidays; the first all-women trip in 2024, and the 2026 trip to a mixed resort where several unaccompanied women turned a few heads before winning people over. Ronnie makes the case for why ladies-only spaces are important as a stepping stone to discovering all of naturism, why she thinks the message lands differently coming from a woman, and how naturism pushes back against social media's unrealistic body standards. Plus the Naked Heart Walks, International Naturist Federation events, and the story of a retired judge and a plumber who became friends in Mexico - because, with no clothes to signal status, all they had left in common was each other's company.

Links for Ronnie Belfitt:

Contact Women in Focus: [email protected]

Helen talks to Dr Victoria Bateman, a Fellow in Economics at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, and the economist and author who has spent over a decade using her own naked body for art and in political protest. Victoria explains how she broke free of what she calls the "cult of female modesty" in her thirties, the story behind the Anthony Connolly nude portrait that caused a media storm in 2014, and the "Brexit leaves Britain naked" protest she staged in Cambridge the day after the 2016 referendum result. Ten years on, she marked the anniversary with a month-long protest in which she rolled a die each morning to decide whether she'd wear an EU flag dress, just a skirt, or nothing but shoes. Victoria argues that women's economic freedom can never be separated from freedom over their own bodies - pointing to Afghanistan and America's purity-pledge movement as examples of how policing women's modesty locks them out of education, work and healthcare. Helen and Victoria compare notes on body freedom, street harassment, deepfakes and online trolling, and why being comfortable naked helped them both notice changes in their own bodies early. Victoria's new book, Economica: A Global History of Women, Wealth, and Power, is out now.

Links for Dr Victoria Bateman:

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Helen talks to Michelle Perry, a British Naturism member from the Brighton area who spent most of her life covering up a body she felt sure would be judged, even wearing long shorts on the beach. Michelle shares how an ex-boyfriend's casual invitation to a naturist beach, and a menopausal "enough is enough" moment in her mid-fifties, first got her there - and how the Everybody festival, a couple of years later, sealed the transformation completely. She and Helen talk candidly about lipedema and body image, the particular safety and shared vulnerability that naturist women find with each other, and why a naked body in front of you somehow makes people less judgmental, not more. Michelle also explains why she'd steer nervous newcomers away from beaches and towards well-run events like Nudefest.

You can read Michelle's written Women in Focus interview here.

Links for Michelle Perry:

Contact Women in Focus: [email protected]

Amy Guerrier, known online as Bare Bum Boaty and Abso-Boatly-Fabulous, is a hula hoop artist, clown, improv performer, and mindset coach who lives aboard a 60-foot wide beam canal boat. Just 35 days before this recording she started an implied nude Instagram account on a whim, stumbled into the naturist community, and hasn't looked back since. In this episode, Helen and Amy explore what it means to follow joy without a plan, why social nudity so quickly strips away pretence and deepens connection, and how the simple act of questioning your language can transform your relationship with yourself and your body. She also shares her exuberant first visit to Sunfolk, and her very serious yet silly plans for a naked cruise and silent disco aboard her boat.

Links for Captain Amy:

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Helen talks to Steph Durbin, newly appointed Director without Portfolio at British Naturism and board chair of Ashdene Naturist Club. She shares her journey that began with grief and arrived — three years later — at joy. Steph discovered naturism in 2022, drawn in by her late mother's lifelong passion and a determined search for purpose after loss. Helen and Steph explore what it means to navigate naturism as a single woman — the trust, the safeguarding, the assumptions people make — and the particular depth of connection that forms when women gather without clothes or pretence. They also speak about Steph's rapid rise to leadership roles, both at Ashdene Naturist Club and British Naturism.

And if you are interested in joining Helen and Steph on the BN Ladies Only holiday in Vritomartis in Crete for a week from the 1st June, email Helen at Women in Focus for details.

Links for Steph Durbin:

Contact Women in Focus: [email protected]

Sarah 'Mexico' Christenson is a Florida-based social media content creator who has built a following by normalising nudism online without apology. She and Helen met aboard the Bare Necessities Big Nude Boat 2026 cruise earlier this year and discovered they shared many ideas in common. Sarah talks about how a group holiday to a Tampa nudist resort in 2019 sparked her unexpected epiphany, how leaving corporate life gave her the freedom to take her advocacy public, and how naturism helped her unpack a childhood steeped in purity culture and body shame. Together, Helen and Sarah explore the de-sexualising effect of nudity, the surprising ease of connection in clothes-free spaces, the differences in terminology across the Atlantic, and what it actually feels like to spend eleven days on a boat with two thousand naked strangers ... and love every minute of it.

And if you are interested in joining Helen and Sarah on the BN Ladies Only holiday in Vritomartis in Crete for a week from the 1st June, email Helen at Women in Focus for details.

Links for Sarah Mexico Christenson:

Contact Women in Focus: [email protected]

Maja Penko is a tour guide from Ljubljana, Slovenia, and is a former long-serving president of the Slovenian Naturist Federation. Maja was raised in a naturist family and shares the charming moment she first realised, at age ten, that not everyone lived quite so freely — a discovery that shaped a lifelong commitment to body acceptance and naturist advocacy. Together, Helen and Maja explore what it means to grow up without body shame, the fight for nipple equality, and why women's own attitudes are often the first barrier to overcome. Maja's message is refreshingly direct: start by looking in the mirror, accept what you see, and take it from there.

And if you are interested in our BN Ladies Only holiday, we will be heading to Vritomartis in Crete for a week from the 1st June. Email Helen at Women in Focus for details.

Links for Maja Penko:

Contact Women in Focus: [email protected]

In part two, Helen continues her conversation with Professor Annebella Pollen from the University of Brighton, author of Nudism in a Cold Climate. Pollen explores why women have always been central to naturism despite being present in smaller numbers. She speaks about Maurice Parmelee's radical 1929 claim that "nudism is a powerful aid to feminism" and "the logical continuation of the women's movement," showing how early advocates saw naturism as breaking down artificial social barriers. Pollen traces women's roles as not just models but photographers, editors, club co-owners, and pioneering thinkers who created platforms for future generations. The conversation examines how the same issues — women's participation, diversity, body representation — have persisted across a century from the 1920s to today.

And if you are interested in our BN Ladies Only holiday, we will be heading to Vritomartis in Crete for a week from the 1st June. Email Helen at Women in Focus for details.

Links for Prof. Annebella Pollen:

Contact Women in Focus: [email protected]