Help Our Daughters Have Healthy Body Images

July 20, 2012 By 16 Comments

Help Our Daughters Have Healthy Body Images (Stock Photo by Todd Arena)If you have a daughter who’s a teenager or young woman, you know how hard it is for her to have a healthy body image in today’s society. It’s nice to know efforts are being made to change that.

I learned about 14-year-old Julia Bluhm at Create With Joy’s Inspire Me Monday. Julia prepared a petition through Change.org: “Seventeen Magazine: Give Girls Images Of Real Girls!” The petition requested that Seventeen magazine print one unaltered photo spread per month.

The petition had over 84,000 signatures, and convinced Seventeen Magazine to “not alter the body size or face shape of the girls and models in the magazine and to feature a diverse range of beauty in its pages.” Here’s a New York Times article telling more about the changes being made by Seventeen Magazine: “Seventeen Magazine Vows to Show Girls ‘as They Really Are.’”

Now there’s a new petition through Change.org asking Teen Vogue to “follow Seventeen’s example and pledge not to alter any model’s body or face and to celebrate beauty in all its forms.” I signed the petition. I hope you do, too!

The Importance of Helping Girls with Their Body Images

Here are some frightening facts about body image from Do Something: “11 Facts about Body Image.”

As a competitive figure skater for fourteen years, my daughter, Christina, experienced first-hand the body image ideals propagated for figure skaters. As a pairs skater, my son, Will, also saw what the pairs girls and other figure skaters went through. My whole family was shocked and saddened to see how many young girls had distorted body images and how many developed eating disorders as a result. We were lucky that Christina had a healthy enough self-image that she didn’t develop an eating disorder.

From the time Christina was little, we tried to encourage the attitude that our daughter was beautiful for who she was as a person. We were thankful that most of Christina’s coaches through the years were careful not to encourage eating disorders. But that isn’t the case with all coaches, and it’s probably inevitable for girls to be exposed to some negative attitudes about body image in activities like dance, figure skating, modeling, and acting.

Even Christina had a skating judge (at the World competitive level) tell her to do something about her vitiligo (areas of her skin without pigment). If you’re familiar with vitiligo, you know it’s difficult or impossible to change. Fortunately, Christina has an amazingly positive attitude about her vitiligo (as does her husband).

At her blogs Christina Chitwood Performance and Fit Body Full Life (which Christina co-authors with her husband), she uses her training and experiences to help others live healthy lives and have healthy attitudes toward performance and life in general. For females who are drawn to performance, it takes a very careful balance if they want to do what they love and stay healthy at the same time.

Girls who loved ballet were the inspiration for the original petition. In her petition to Seventeen Magazine, Julia Bluhm said:

Girls want to be accepted, appreciated, and liked. And when they don’t fit the criteria, some girls try to “fix” themselves. This can lead to eating disorders, dieting, depression, and low self esteem.

I’m in a ballet class with a bunch of high-school girls. On a daily basis I hear comments like: “It’s a fat day,” and “I ate well today, but I still feel fat.” Ballet dancers do get a lot of flack about their bodies, but it’s not just ballet dancers who feel the pressure to be “pretty”. It’s everyone. To girls today, the word “pretty” means skinny and blemish-free. Why is that, when so few girls actually fit into such a narrow category? It’s because the media tells us that “pretty” girls are impossibly thin with perfect skin.

Here’s what lots of girls don’t know. Those “pretty women” that we see in magazines are fake. They’re often photoshopped, air-brushed, edited to look thinner, and to appear like they have perfect skin. A girl you see in a magazine probably looks a lot different in real life.

Use Photoshop with Care

Photoshop can be wonderful for removing unnecessary distractions from photos. Seventeen Magazine still plans to use it for “messy details” like flyaway hairs and wrinkled clothes. But beyond that, Photoshop can become very dangerous.

To see just how unreal the images of models in magazines are, check out this 2006 Canada commercial for Dove:

Here’s a parody of Photoshop that’s gone viral on YouTube this year. The video says a lot. “Fotoshop by Adobé”:

YouTube Preview Image

If you’d like to know more about the Fotoshop video, here’s an interview with the filmmaker: “Meet the Mind Behind the Going-Viral ‘Fotoshop’ Video” by Annie Tomlin at Bella Sugar.

True Beauty Lies Beneath the Surface

What I hope we can all encourage in young women (and people of all ages):

DChitwood_BeautyIsALightInTheHeart

“Beauty is a Light in the Heart” Word Art Freebie (without watermark)

Courage and Honor Are Truly Beautiful

DChitwood_BeautyIsTheIllumination

“Beauty is the Illumination of Your Soul” Word-Art Freebie (without watermark)

"I've never seen a smiling face that was not beautiful." Unknown

“I’ve Never Seen a Smiling Face That Was Not Beautiful” Word-Art Freebie

Let’s work together to help our daughters – and the daughters of the world – have healthy body images!

UPDATE: See Help Our Daughters Have Healthy Body Images: The Saga Continues

I have lots of quotes and word-art inspiration at the Raising Figure Skaters Facebook page and on Pinterest!

Linked to The Mommy Club Resources and Solutions at Milk and Cuddles and Crystal & Co.,  Saturday Show & Tell, and Link & Learn.

Filed Under: Making a Difference, Parents' Role, self-esteem Tagged With: , , , , ,


Comments

  1. Brooke Arellano says:
    July 20, 2012 at 12:20 pm

    Hi! Stopping by from the Aloha Friday blog hop and am now your newest follower:) Hope you can come check out Crazy Mama Drama !
    http://crazy-mama-drama.blogspot.com/
    http://www.facebook.com/pages/Crazy-Mama-Drama/259491484156846

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  2. Grady Pruitt
    Twitter:
    says:
    July 21, 2012 at 1:59 am

    I’ve known for a long time that a lot of the images we see in magazines have had some work done on them, but not until I saw that video did I realize how much (or how easy) that was done. I knew blemishes were often corrected. I never realized they made them look thinner too.

    Young minds are so impressionable. It’s hard when we, as parents, do everything we can to instill a strong self-confidence in our children, only to have that chipped away and eroded by the media and other influences in our children’s lives. Bravo, I say, to those trying to bring truth back, especially to the magazines aimed at teens.
    Grady Pruitt recently posted..Three Keys to Building Your SuccessMy Profile
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    • Deb
      Twitter:
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      July 21, 2012 at 5:20 pm

      Thanks for your thoughtful comment, Grady! I’ve seen a number of different videos and articles showing the extreme changes that can be made with Photoshop … it’s definitely shocking. Girls just don’t realize those images aren’t how the models and celebrities naturally look. Like you, I’m so glad some girls are doing something about it! :)
      Deb recently posted..Raising an Elite AthleteMy Profile
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  3. The Iowa Farmer's Wife says:
    July 21, 2012 at 8:51 pm

    Thanks so much for sharing this Deb. As someone who battled an eating disorder for over 10 years, this is SO important to teach young women. My daughter is only 3, but we’ve already started the road to building her self-esteem and loving herself for who she is. In addition to that, teaching her that beauty comes from what’s inside a person, not how they look.
    I once read a book called The Four Agreements about how our perception of what is beautiful and what is ugly comes from society. We learn that something is ugly or beautiful because someone else thought or said it was, not because we’re perceived it to be. In fact, I think most children think everything & everyone around them is a beautiful creation until someone tells them otherwise.
    It makes me so sad that so many different sports and activities target young women’s bodies.
    Ok, this comment is long enough! But thank you for this post, it is SO important. Signing the petition now.
    The Iowa Farmer’s Wife recently posted..The Sunday Showcase: Outdoor PlayMy Profile

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    • Deb
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      July 22, 2012 at 5:13 am

      Thanks so much for sharing your experience and the wisdom you gained from battling an eating disorder. It’s wonderful that you’re working to help your daughter love herself for who she is from a young age. And thanks for signing the petition. I hope we can all make a difference in such an important cause! :)
      Deb recently posted..Raising an Elite AthleteMy Profile
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  4. crystal says:
    July 22, 2012 at 9:48 pm

    WOW! Thanks so much for sharing this post Deb! I am amazed at how much photoshop can do. Our society definitely has a distorted image of what “real women” look like.

    Reply
  5. Tiaras and Bowties says:
    July 23, 2012 at 3:04 pm

    I am so happy to have found your blog! This is such an important message for all girls especially those who are so young and impressionable! My own daughter suffers from negative self esteem because of physical and mental diabilities and it is so very sad. Every girl is beautiful! My friends daughter is suffering from anorexia this year as well – so very heartbreaking that the images they see daily tell them they are not good enough! Thanks for this post… very enlightening. I will be signing the petition right away!
    xoxo
    Kim
    Your newest follower
    Tiaras and Bowties recently posted..First Glimpse at our Sweet 16My Profile

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  6. Nicole says:
    July 23, 2012 at 5:18 pm

    Great post. The media can sure distort our body image in an unhealthy way!
    Nicole recently posted..Show Off Friday # 13, July 20, 2012My Profile

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  7. Sunny James says:
    November 2, 2012 at 10:40 am

    great article it is so important to help our children love and accept themselves for who they are and not try to be someone else, their self esteem effects every thing in their lives.
    Sunny James recently posted..Elemetary School Assembly Programs for Students – Sunny JamesMy Profile

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  8. Ian Perry says:
    January 2, 2013 at 1:43 am

    Thanks for sharing this article Deb. It’s great to hear about Christina maintain a positive attitude despite contracting vitiligo.
    Ian Perry recently posted..How to Cover VitiligoMy Profile

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