"Love Your Body"- Promoting a Healthy Body Image
Self-esteem is a necessary component in achieving success in life. For many people, especially teens, body image can be closely linked to self-esteem. Feeling good about who you are is based on the value you place on yourself, your achievements as well as how you think others perceive you. Though physical changes and development in the body contribute significantly to one's self image, there are also outside influences that play a key role in the development of a child's self-esteem. Negative comments from peers, family and friends can contribute to feelings of shame and anxiety of ones body. Media images of unrealistically thin girls and women and muscular bulked-up guys perpetuate the idea that we all must look a certain way to fit in.
My belief in the importance of having a positive self image to achieve personal success is what leads me to advocate promoting a healthy body image. My message "Love Your Body" was developed to help young people recognize that their bodies are their own, no matter what shape or size it comes in. I have volunteered and served as a spokesperson for the Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness I had the opportunity to travel across my county and speak to local middle, high school and college students about eating disorders and the positive effects of a healthy body image. I was recently selected by "Dare to Dream America" to receive a government grant to help educate young people on the importance of having a positive body image. The money was used to create a coloring and activity book aimed at elementary aged children on promoting positive body esteem.I am currently involved with the newly incorporated not-for-profit organization Reaching Out Against Eating Disorders. We are preparing a fundraising fashion show with various known designers scheduled to take place in early 2010.
My partnerships with the Alliance for Eating Disorder Awareness and the National Eating Disorders Association have allowed me to promote my body image workshops and help young people develop a healthy approach to their body esteem. My continued fundraising efforts will assist in the promotion and education of healthy lifestyle habits and self-acceptance. Through education we can strongly influence young people to understand, accept and love their bodies.
Platform
For more information on the dangers of
Eating Disorders please visit:
www.nationaleatingdisorders.org
or go to
www.hopetolive.com
For more information on the
importance of a positive body image
please visit:
www.campaignforrealbeauty.com
