Chidera Eggerue


Chidera Eggerue is a British Nigerian writer and fashion blogger. She is best known for her book, What a Time to Be Alone, and the online campaign #SaggyBoobsMatter.

Early life

Eggerue was raised in Southeast London in Peckham, a neighborhood that is mostly British Nigerian. Eggerue attended Goose Green Primary School. Eggerue then moved on to Kingsdale Foundation School for her secondary education. Her family is Igbo. She attended college to study fashion design but was unable to finish her degree due to depression.

Career

In 2017, Eggerue started #SaggyBoobsMatter, a hashtag that gained prominence on Twitter and Instagram, to challenge the convention that women with large breasts must wear a bra if their breasts sag. As a teenager she felt insecure because her breasts did not look like a model on the packaging of her first bra. She later decided to embrace her shape and posted a picture wearing a dress without a bra in September 2017, using the hashtag. According to Eggerue, "“There is enough room for everybody in the body positivity movement. But we must work together to make room for those more marginalised than us.” Eggerue has received backlash to the campaign. Early in 2018, one of her braless photos was turned into a meme that referred to her and another black woman as unattractive. She has also been called an "attention seeker."
She then started a blog called The Slumflower to highlight fashion that is not covered within the mainstream. The name refers to the concept of a rose growing from concrete, and comes from the short film created by creative duo Street Etiquette. The blog feature modern street style fashions that are affordable. She also writes on topics like friendship, dating, racism, and sexism.
In early 2018, she hosted a Newsbeat documentary that explored hair loss and her own experiences with traction alopecia. She cites Munroe Bergdorf, Renni Eddo Lodge and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie as her biggest inspirations.
She was the creative director for Innclusive, a home rental organization that caters to a multiracial audience.
In January 2020 she presented a Channel 4 documentary Bring Back the Bush, examining why women shave their pubic hair.

Works

''What a Time to Be Alone''

After being encouraged by her digital followers, Eggerue created a zine in Adobe InDesign with advice on self-love. After positive reception, she started looking for a publisher. Eggerue published a book called What a Time to be Alone: The Slumflower's Guide to Why You Are Already Enough in July 2018 under Quadrille Publishing. A few days after publication the book became a Sunday Times bestseller. The book focuses on self-love and contains advice on how young women can be happy alone. Eggerue uses Igbo proverbs throughout the book. She recorded a Tedx Talk about self-love named after the book the same month it was released.

''How to Get Over a Boy''

In February 2020 she published the book How To Get Over A Boy which gives advice on dating.

Accolades

In 2018, she was chosen for the BBC 100 Women list.