See the girl in this picture, she didn’t like her body. She wanted to hide her crooked face and curvy body away from the world. She thought that her life would be magical and sparkly if she just looked “right”. She wanted to be beautiful, thin, and to have her jaw problem fixed. She hated this picture. Her Mum put it on Facebook and she asked her to take it down so many times. It’s sad that she ever felt this way about herself.
It’s hard to imagine that this girl grew up to become a body confident woman. A woman who accepts and loves her body. A woman who doesn’t really think about her body that much. A woman who is liberated. A woman who helps other women to accept their bodies. It took a lot of self-acceptance and self-love to get here.
I recently saw some research conducted by Dove’s Self-Esteem Project which indicates that 87% of Irish girls aged 10-17 do not have high body self-esteem.
Other upsetting stats the survey highlighted 👇
😢 47% of girls aged 7-21 say the way they look holds them back
😢 61% of girls aged 7-21 have experienced people criticising their bodies
😢 25% of girls aged 7-10 have experienced someone saying mean things about their bodies
I know how much poor body image held me back. We can do better for young women in Ireland. The best way for Mums to help their daughters is to learn how to accept their own bodies so they can be body confident role-models. Put it like this, if you can’t drive then you can’t teach someone else to drive. Same goes for liking your body. You can’t show your kid’s how to like their bodies if you can’t do it yourself.
If you want help to raise your daughter(s) to be body confident then check out my programme Body Positive Parenting. I help Mums who struggle with their body image to like their bodies so they can raise their kids to be body confident.