I grew up very lucky that I can not remember ever really hating my body, but I know that isnt the case for everyone. I also know that body image issues and hatred don't just happen when they are seemingly justified. The truth is that from every direction we are told how to feel about how bodies, how they should look and what we should be doing to improve them - so is it any wonder that young girls (and boys) are growing up not knowing how to love and respect their body.
One of the biggest discussions over the last few days is what the government and schools can do to help young people like their body, for me - it isn't rocket science!
The media is full of slim celebrities telling us about their bodies, even in subtle ways! But the likes of Blogger, Twitter, Tumblr and more are full of inspirational women of ALL sizes telling us to stick it to the man!
Why not show children in schools the tweets, videos, words of wisdom from these people who survive every single day in this big, bad world!
Some of the inspirational people I would love to see shown to school children:
Mary Lambert
I love this poem by Mary Lambert. The I Know Girls (Body Love) poem might be a little hard-hitting but the sentences about body love are fantastic and something every girl should hear!
And with words like "I am a big girl. A voluptuous, curvy, dress-wearing lesbian. I love my body; it’s the only one I’ll ever have. I eat a lot of greens and work out and drink gin martinis and put M&Ms in my froyo and sometimes I don’t do anything but watch Project Runway. I am allowed to look sexy, feel sexy, and be in love. I am worthy of all of those things, and so are you. Own your good and bad, and all the scary parts that you’ve been covering up because it is yours and no amount of judgement can tell you how to love your body. In the words of Sonya Renee, the body is not an apology. You are magic." which is posted on her Facebook recently she should be used more when it comes to teaching people to love their bodies!
I have mentioned Natasha Devon before and I will again! She already does so much for helping young people love their bodies - her company Body Gossip go into schools to talk about confidence and body love! It would be great if more was made of this.
Rachel Wiley
I have blogged about her poem before - 10 thoughts on being loved by a skinny boy. I love stuff like this and find the words inspirational. I follow her on Twitter and she often tweets out words of wisdom, which young people would most definitely benefit from!
This is just a small, tiny, teeny handful of the women who put themselves out there everyday to help people love their bodies. Online campaigns such as Eff Your Beauty Standards and Honor My Curves are full of everyday women showing their own body love. People such as Tess Munster show that you can love your body and make a career out of it!
Even if schools can't promote these precise people, why not show young people a way of looking up inspirational people online? I am sure there are plenty of people I don't know about (I would love to read about them if you know any!)... but I read a lot of Tumblr and Twitter and everyday I am inspired by something that is posted!
Who are your main inspirations?
Debz xx
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