Creating a Healthy Body Image

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Today, we’ll be talking about body image- a healthy body image and how it can be disturbed, the media’s effect on body image, and what parents can do to help their children love their bodies.

Joining us is Dr. Renee Engeln, professor of psychology at Northwestern University and author of Beauty Sick: How the Cultural Obsession with Appearance Hurts Girls and Women.

The interview answers the following questions.

You run the Body and Media Lab at Northwestern. Could you tell us your focus and work there? Body image- definition. What’s a healthy body image?

When and how might one’s body image be skewed/altered? Social media/culture/etc.?

Are there certain groups of individuals- ages, gender identities, orientations- who appear to have higher rates of “body image disturbance”? Why?

Beauty Sick

Beauty Sick: “After researching women’s battles with beauty for years, I can confidently tell you that girls and women who struggle to feel at home in their bodies are not some odd subculture of America. They are our daughters, our sisters, our students, our friends, our partners, and our loved ones.”

“Beauty sickness is what happens when women’s emotional energy gets so bound up with what they see in the mirror that it becomes harder for them to see other aspects of their lives.”

Manifestations of beauty sickness, who, etc? Why for women? Other individuals?

CAUSES of Beauty Sickness

Parents, Peers, Media

What's the answer/remedy? What can parents say or do to nip this in the bud for children (youth, teens) so they don’t head down the wrong road? Tips?