When healthy arrives on the set of our best-selling Christmas cover shoot, the first of our three cover stars – fitness blogger Zanna van Dijk – is already there and waiting for us. This is not how our cover shoots generally work. Blonde and 6ft 2in, Zanna is busy recording a video blog for her 18k followers, even though she’s not wearing a scrap of make-up and her still-damp hair has just been pulled up in a top knot. Sipping her herbal tea, Zanna helps herself to an almond croissant and tells us she’s had a lie in today – only getting up at 6am. Normally she’s up at 5am, fitting in a workout (HIIT or weights) well before most of us are reaching for the alarm. ‘Oh well,’ she says. ‘Today can be a rest day!’
If you haven’t heard of 23-year-old Zanna van Dijk or her healthy cover co-stars Natasha Corrett, 33, and 29-year-old Carly Rowena, yet, then it’s just a matter of time. For, while they may have started out on social media (see Natasha’s 330k followers on Instagram), you no longer need an Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat account, or even a laptop, for these powerhouse women to show up on your radar. The last 12 months have seen them cross over into the ‘real world’ with books, cafes, clothing, food and kitchen gadgets being just some of the ways bloggers like these are inspiring us to live better.
Leading this is Natasha, with four best-selling cookbooks to her name, including her most recent, Honestly Healthy In A Hurry (Hodder & Stoughton, £25), which is out now. All her books are built off the back of her successful healthy eating brand, Honestly Healthy (honestlyhealthyfood.com). Zanna, who has her own fitness fashion collaboration and co-founded the #Girlgains movement, which promotes women in sport, is set to go stellar this Christmas with the release of her book, Strong (Headline, £16.99). Personal trainer Carly may be the least well known, but with her infectious personality, and compellingly honest blogs about her skin, we reckon world domination isn’t far off.