Abstract
This article examines the branded persona of Ella Mills, founder of the multi-platform, multi-product and multi-million pound food brand Deliciously Ella. It begins from the premise that Mills represents a new kind of cultural intermediary: that of the wellness entrepreneur. Through a discourse analysis of Mills’ own media productions alongside news and magazine features about the entrepreneur, I consider how ‘healthy eating’ is being sold to young women as a means to realise physical and financial empowerment. Commercial entrepreneurship is made to function in tandem with health entrepreneurship, as Mills makes it her business to model a healthy lifestyle and enjoins others to follow this example. The article further examines how the Deliciously Ella narrative perpetuates already dominant understandings of health as a private good and personal responsibility through its emphasis on healing and recovery through food. Relating this analysis to recent debates about the shifting terrain of postfeminism in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, I argue that the spotlighting of Mills elevates self-care as a gendered imperative while obfuscating the classed and racialised privileges that attend this.
Highlights
This article examines the branded persona of Ella Mills, founder of the multiplatform, multi-product and multi-million pound food brand Deliciously Ella
As well as being the author of several best-selling books, Mills commands large and highly engaged audiences on social media, including 1.7 million followers on Instagram. She is routinely profiled for news and lifestyle outlets, recently featuring on the cover of Women’s Health, and has appeared in high-profile advertising campaigns alongside bona fide celebrities such as Sarah Jessica Parker
Extensive medical investigation proved inconclusive until eventually a diagnosis of the autonomic condition postural tachycardia syndrome (PoTS) was made
Summary
At the heart of the Deliciously Ella narrative is a remarkable story of healing and recovery through food. Woodward, (2015) describes her return to health as ‘like a miracle’ and recounts the decision to change her diet as ‘single-handedly the best thing I’ve ever done’ (p. 9). She frequently aligns herself with Department of Health dietary advice – the guideline to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables per day – stating that she wants to get ‘people to be excited about healthy food’ so that they can ‘incorporate their five-a-day in a way that they’ll want to eat it’ (Norton, 2017) She routinely cites research which finds that ‘only 1 in 4 of us reach that 5 a day aim’ and contends that ‘with everything we’re doing [at Deliciously Ella], I hope to contribute to changing this statistic’ (Woodward, 2017). The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) is straining under the weight of market reforms, the effects of which are demonstrably ‘detrimental to both health and healthcare’ (Benbow, 2017; cf. Basu et al, 2017; British Medical Association (BMA), 2016)
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