Girls Are Still Hearing Negative Body Talk From Women Around Them, New Research Reveals
And ladies, we have to do better.
Society’s view on body image has come a long way since we were little girls. From brands diversifying their model pool to intentionally publishing photoshoots and marketing materials without any body editing, our young girls are seeing a different standard of body confidence. But body image issues still linger, and according to research released today by Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA), we might not be able to blame it all on society — it looks like the call is coming from inside the house.
In partnership with Flamingo, a body care brand, GSUSA has launched a new Body Appreciation Program designed to help girls appreciate their bodies for what they can do — such as breathing, creating, living — and not for what they look like.
The new program will feature a badge curriculum to encourage positive body image and talk, and will guide girls to appreciate the incredible ways their bodies function and perform, from running and dancing to creating and moving for fun. The program is guided by research conducted by GSUSA, which found that while 96% of girls say they like the way they look, 37% still wish they could change something about their appearance. In girls ages 11 to 13, that percentage jumps to 50%.
But the most alarming? More than one-third of girls ages 5 to 13 hear negative body image messages from the women around them.
Ladies, that one’s on us.
No matter how many bookshelves we fill with stories about strong, courageous girls, no matter how many times we tell our daughters and our nieces and our little cousins how gorgeous they are, no matter how much we fill their brains with positive body image — it all falls flat when they see us picking at our own bodies in the mirror. When they see us asking our partners if we look fat in a dress, when they see us deleting photos off our phone (photos of us with our gorgeous daughters) because we hate the way we look, they absorb it all.
They think we’re beautiful, strong, and smart. So, when we dive into our negative body image and they hear it? Well, why would we expect them to believe us when we tell them they’re beautiful, strong, and smart?
Sure, 36% of girls hearing negative body image messages from the women around them is probably a lot lower than it was in the ‘90s... but it’s still too much. Maybe we all need to join the Body Appreciation Program. We all need to start valuing our bodies for the things they can do, like juggling 800 kid schedules, working a full-time job and still having energy for bath time and hide-and-seek and handling laundry for a family of five, and still managing to get a Hot Mom Walk in.
And we can talk ourselves up to our daughters — about how strong we feel, how capable we are, and how good it feels to let our bodies move and be creative and live.
Because they’re listening, and we know what we really want them to absorb.
