Stronger
Winner of the Sunday Times Sports Book Award 2022
If you are the girl, the woman who feels like she is never enough, that she will never be as strong, as good, as capable, I am here to tell you that you are enough. I am here to tell you that while it shouldn’t have been your burden, you can write a different story.
Stronger will change what you think you know about strength and, most importantly, empower you to go on your own journey to discover what strength looks like for you.
Now a competitive amateur powerlifter who can lift over twice her own bodyweight, Poorna Bell is perfectly placed to start a crucial conversation about women’s strength and fitness, one that has nothing to do with weight loss. In Stronger she challenges the notions taught to us as girls, and examines how all of us can tap into our reservoir of inner strength to make us our strongest selves mentally and physically. Describing taking up weightlifting after the death of her husband, she shows how discovering her own strength helped her to find the confidence that physical pursuits can amplify – the confidence that has been helping men to succeed for centuries – and that women can find too.
In these pages, Poorna tells not only her own story but those of a range of women, investigating intersections of race, age and social background. Part memoir, part manifesto, Stronger explodes old-fashioned notions and long-held beliefs about getting strong and explores the relationship between mental and physical strength.
Whether you’re into weightlifting, running, swimming, yoga or don’t consider yourself to be sporty at all, Poorna shows how finding strength can work for you, regardless of age, ability or background.
Poorna is an award-winning freelance journalist of fifteen years and a digital editorial expert, having previously worked as UK Executive Editor and Global Lifestyle Head for HuffPost. She freelances for The Times, The i Paper, Grazia, The Guardian, Red magazine, and Stylist among others. She is the author of Stronger.
Poorna is an experienced public speaker across ministerial health summits, corporate and consumer events, including Twitter, Ad Week, NHS and Oath. She's also spoken on Channel 5, ITV and BBC News, as well as regularly on TalkRadio and BBC 5 Live.
Named one of Balance magazine’s top 100 wellness personalities two years running, she's also been a judge for Mind Media Awards, Own Media Awards, British Book Awards, Sony World Photography and First Women.