"This year, ‘f*ck it’ is the mantra."

LAURA

Learn more about the powerful people who grace our photography. Meet friend and supporter of Pruzan, Laura Merritt (@lauratmerritt):

Where are you from and what do you do?

LM: I’m from a small town in Dorset but I’ve lived in East London for nearly 12 years so I consider myself a Londoner now. I’m co-founder of Merritt Tate, a small but mighty contemporary communications consultancy that works with fashion and lifestyle brands. I’m also a model now apparently…

How has running shown up in your life? Other movement practices you love?

LM: I’m a lazy girl at heart and my favourite thing is to lie down. My bed is my favourite place on earth. I’ve had a complicated relationship with exercise over the years, often viewing it as punishment for my body. I found running during the pandemic and stuck with it for the mental health benefits over the physical benefits, often loathing every moment during my 30 minutes pounding the pavement but then feeling so proud of myself afterwards. Since then I’ve found a love for weight training which has helped shift my perspective of exercise being for weight loss and instead I enjoy noticing how my physical strength has changed - something I’ve found to be empowering. I don’t think I’ve ever felt 'strong' but now I do. I also love to dance, be it in a class, on the dancefloor in a bar or just in my kitchen when I'm making dinner. If a good song comes on my headphones as I'm walking through the door coming home from work then the headphones stay in and I have a little boogie in the flat on my own. 

Any mantras you like to live by, in running or in life?

LM: This year I’ve adopted the mentality that if I want to do it, I should do it and not worry about it. If I want to buy something - do it. If I want to go someplace - do it. I’ve worked hard for a long time and think I can often hold myself back from things because I’m not a very impulsive person but this year ‘f*ck it’ is the mantra.

Any brands or movement leaders who inspire you?

I'm not into sports so I don't pay much attention to athletes. Dance was often the only movement that made me feel comfortable when I was younger as I was a chunky theatre kid. The choreographer Parris Goebel is one of my all time favourite people on Instagram - a true movement leader as she is one of a kind - incomparable and untouchable in her field. You can instantly recognise her choreo and I started following her before she blew up for her work on Justin Bieber's 'Sorry' video and her career defining work with Rihanna. She also was one of the first non-thin dancers I'd seen. As someone who spent the majority of my youth in theatre schools the dance world can be super toxic when it comes to body type, specifically a body type that I have never fit into, so seeing Parris with all her talent and success and not necessarily a 'typical' dancer's body was and still is really inspiring to me.