Teach Girls to Think About What Their Bodies Are Doing, Not How They Look.
You don’t just imagine it. Girls start thinking about the ideal body at an earlier age. In her book Beauty Sick: How the Cultural Obsession with Appearance Hurts Girls and Women , psychology researcher Rene Engeln cites the enraging data that 34% of 5-year-old girls deliberately restrict what they eat, at least “sometimes.” And 28% of these girls say they want their bodies to look like women in films and on television.
Five years. This is the age when kids have to dig all day for wild interrogations and sculpt dolls out of paper bags without wondering if their hands are shaking too much when they run. There is an obsession with appearance in our culture, and its consequences include depression, eating disorders, and disruptions in cognitive processing.
Engeln, whospoke at TEDx about what she calls the “epidemic of beauty disease,” believes small changes in the way girls think and talk about themselves can help them feel more comfortable in their skin.
In her book, she offers this “filling the gap” exercise, which allowed women in one of her studies to feel more grateful for their bodies. It can also be used with young girls.
I use my hands to __________.
My body helps me __________.
I love that my body can ___________.
My legs allow me to __________.
My body feels strongest when _________.
Engeln found that focusing on what their bodies can do makes women feel better about how their bodies look. For children, this activity can be combined with inspirational books such as Strongly New Beauty: A Feast for Girls to Be The Same .