Some conversations were once whispered. Over the last twenty years, many of them have found their way into everyday life; discussed at dinner tables, in classrooms, in workplaces, and across cultures with greater care. This category celebrates the shifts that have helped bring once-taboo topics into the open, reshaping how we understand ourselves and one another.
As Latitude marks its twentieth year, we wanted to pause and reflect on the changes that have most profoundly shaped modern life. Not through a single event or movement, but through a gradual rebalancing of progress, understanding and empathy.
Mental Health
Over the past two decades, mental health has moved from the margins to the mainstream, shaped by artists, writers and advocates who helped give language to experiences many felt they had to hide. Voices like Matt Haig, whose book Notes on a Nervous Planet openly explores anxiety, depression and recovery, have helped normalise conversations that once felt impossible to have. What was once hidden behind stigma is now part of everyday conversation, from schools and workplaces to art, music and media. This shift has helped countless people feel less alone, reframing vulnerability as something to be acknowledged rather than concealed. It has changed how we care for ourselves, how we support one another, and how we talk about what it means to be human.
Body Positivity
Body positivity has challenged long-held ideas about beauty, worth and representation, asking who gets to be seen and celebrated. Figures such as Ashley Graham helped bring this shift into the mainstream, using visibility to expand representation and redefine confidence on a global scale. By widening the lens of who gets to be seen and celebrated, it has helped dismantle narrow ideals and create space for confidence, self-acceptance and self-expression. This change has influenced fashion, culture and social media, but more importantly, it has offered permission to exist more comfortably in our own skin.
Neurodiversity
The growing understanding of neurodiversity has reshaped how we think about difference, moving conversations away from deficit and towards acceptance. Rather than framing it as something to be fixed, this shift recognises neurodivergence as a natural spectrum of human variation and a vital part of how we think, create and connect. Voices such as Chris Packham, who has spoken openly about living with autism, have helped bring visibility, nuance and compassion to the conversation. Across classrooms, workplaces and creative spaces, this change has encouraged more inclusive ways of listening, learning and working together, valuing difference not as a challenge to overcome, but as a strength to be embraced.
As we reflected on this category, it became clear that no single change stands alone. Mental health awareness, body positivity and neurodiversity are deeply interconnected, each reinforcing the others in how they ask us to rethink care, identity and community.
We recognise these shifts as part of a wider movement towards openness, empathy and understanding. Together, they have helped shape a society that is more willing to listen, to question old assumptions, and to make space for difference.
As we close the chapter on another year and look ahead, it feels fitting to honour not one moment, but a collective change in how we live, feel and relate to one another.
With love,
The Latitude Festival Team
