Last month, a young woman named Jae West stood in her underwear in central London clutching marker pens in outstretched hands.
Her aim was to campaign for body positivity and self-acceptance, asking passers by to draw hearts on her body if they had ever felt self-conscious about the way they looked.
The response was overwhelming both on the day and on social media, after the video was uploaded to Facebook.
But one woman from Idaho, USA, has suggested that the response West received may not have been so positive if she had looked different.
"[Jae West] was thin, and white, and young," Amy Pence-Brown told USA Today. "So what if you were fat, what if you were about forty, and a mum, and what if you were somewhere different, like Boise, Idaho?"
To find out if we really live in a society that wants to promote self-love, Pence-Brown replicated West's experiment and stood in her bikini with a blindfold over her eyes in a busy farmer's market in Boise.
The self-identifying "feminist mum" stood with a chalk board at her feet which read: "I'm standing for anyone who has struggled with a self-esteem issue, like me, because all bodies are valuable. To support self-acceptance, draw on my body."
To her surprise, the public responded in an overwhelmingly positive way.
Many people drew hearts on Pence-Brown's body and wrote phrases such as "you are beautiful", "stand strong", and "badass" on her bare skin.
Many women gave Pence-Brown a hug and a young man placed a flower at her feet.
"Oh, Boise, you restored my faith in humanity, you blew my mind with your kindness, you saw the beauty in my body and your own," Pence-Brown wrote in a blog post about her experience.
"You are ready for a body positive revolution, and I'm honoured to stand by your side. Take my hand, if you need, and I'll pull you up."
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