JOURNALIST turned stand-up Juliette Burton has been both a four and a 20 in dress size, following battles with compulsive overeating, anorexia and bulimia.

And in her second solo comedy-documentary show Look At Me she is turning her attention onto the “ideal” of the body beautiful, through a mixture of interviews, filmed experiments and her own observations.

If there was any doubt about this still being an issue Burton had firsthand experience earlier this year when she dared to criticise a “beach body” advert currently doing the rounds in the London Underground on Twitter.

She became the focus of trolling – attacking not only her stance against body shaming but also her mental health – including troubling tweets from the company itself.

“I got an overwhelming amount of support,” she says. “I got emails from people I have never met, all the way from the US, Finland and across Europe. I would love to give them all a huge hug or high five for reaching out. It gives a community a stronger voice if we are all willing to stand together and say ‘This is not okay’.”

Her process in writing Look At Me began with a series of 40 interviews with men and women, ranging from those with facial disfigurements, to octogenarians and women who wear hijabs.

Selections from up to 15 of the interviews are screened as part of the show, alongside a magazine Burton reads with the audience, and film of her own experiments trying out different bodies in public, ranging from a “sexy” Jordan clone, to a 90-year-old woman, to a male disguise.

“I’m a big fan of science in comedy,” says Burton. “I wanted to see how it felt inside, and how people were treating me. If people treat us in a certain way it impacts on our confidence.”

She was shocked by the reaction her “sexy” costume caused. “I wasn’t acting any differently as I would normally,” she says. “I didn’t want to create any affectations or play up to a stereotype. I used hidden cameras – I had a friend with a DSLR getting a lot of people’s heads turning, and I had a Go Pro camera so we could show my perspective. Whenever I watch the film it takes me straight back to how I felt that day. I hadn’t realised how good it felt to be me again.”

Dressing in a “fat” suit also opened her eyes.

“I had been the same girl in different size bodies, and had felt very differently about myself in all those different stages,” she says.

“Walking around I realised I hadn’t appreciated my body – I felt beautiful that day. I had spent half my life trying to achieve something that kept me away from enjoying life. I wasted so many years hating my body as it wasn’t the perceived notion of beauty. I could have been going out and partying!”

She denies the idea that doing the show is a form of therapy – “when I go to therapy I have to pay for an hour” – but she feels her take on the comedy documentary has given her life some purpose.

“Anyone who comes to the show is uplifted and left with a positive message,” she says.

“The best thing I can contribute to people is not to feel alone, you’re in a room of people laughing at something, rather than feeling isolated and separate, which can become a killer.

“I love it when people come to me after the show and say they have been positively affected by it, or share their history. I feel honoured that they trust me to talk to.”

Juliette Burton – Look At Me Komedia, Gardner Street, Brighton, Thursday, May 28

Starts 6.30pm, tickets £8/£6. Call 01273 917272.