Healthy Body Image Activities

Over 80 percent of 10-year-old girls have dieted at least once. Our society stigmatizes overweight individuals, as well as those who are deemed unattractive based on certain standards. This leads to men and women of all ages having issues with their body image. Performing healthy body image activities in school classrooms can help students cope with low self-esteem.

Defining Beauty

• Body image issues arise when our definition of beauty differs significantly from our own appearance. Have your students write a list of 10 words they associate with beauty. Gather in small groups to identify words that commonly appear in your definitions of beauty. Ask each group to research a notion of beauty in another culture. When the groups meet again, have members share their findings to illustrate the point that there are many ways to conceptualize beauty. Next, ask each student to write a new list of 10 words associated with beauty that do not mention physical appearance. Many people consider confidence, intelligence, good humor or honesty attractive traits that tend to go unnoticed in mainstream society.

Advertising

• Advertisements for cosmetics, clothing, travel and other consumer items often rely on people who are perceived as physically attractive to sell products. Cut out a series of advertisements that use models with extremely thin body shapes. Ask each student to make a list of adjectives to describe each model. Discuss whether being thin or pretty makes them more worthwhile than people of average weight and attractiveness. Encourage students to talk about any pressure they feel when looking at the advertisements to act or look more like the models featured. Have students find examples of advertisers that feature more realistic models to demonstrate that all types of people are beautiful.

Healthy Lifestyles

• Learning to accept your body means adopting a healthy lifestyle. Healthy lifestyles include good diet choices, frequent exercise and making positive choices such as not smoking or avoiding unprotected sex. Talk to students about respecting and loving their bodies enough to make positive lifestyle changes. Identify athletes and other role models who exemplify healthy lifestyles. Encourage students to think about the lifestyle choices they make and whether each choice is rooted in respect for their bodies and themselves.

Loving Yourself

• Ask students to make a list of things they dislike about themselves. These qualities could be physical characteristics, character traits or habits. Encourage students to re-frame a characteristic they dislike, such as a prominent nose, as a unique or lovable quality. Then ask them to make a list of things they love about themselves. Show students that they all have characteristics that make them worthwhile. Have them post their list of lovable qualities in a school locker, on a mirror at home or in some other prominent place to remind them of their positive attributes.