“I feel like my body can express things that I can’t actually say,” says Monica Steffey of Our Bodies, Our Lives: Mirrors & Numbers.
Watching Steffey dance, you might find it hard to imagine that she wasn’t always this comfortable in her own skin.
“I suffered from an eating disorder growing up,” says Steffey.
She says, her body image issues started when she was eight years old growing up in Lyme, New Hampshire.
“Looking back on photos I was this stick thin, very uncomfortably tall kind of starting to hit puberty girl and I was honestly convinced that I was obese,” says Steffey.
She provides a reflection into feelings that many people struggle with.
According to Heart of Leadership, Girls’ self-esteem peaks when they are 9 years old.
80% of children who are 10 years old are afraid of being fat.
90% of high school junior and senior girls diet regularly.
“I think we live in a world of really unrealistic body image,” says Leah Carey of Our Bodies, Our Lives.
For Leah Carey, it started at ten years old when her father called her fat.
“His voice has haunted me throughout my adult life,” says Carey.
While she faces her own demons, Leah says, societies pressure for perfection has reached new heights. Olympians in Rio, like gymnast Alexa Moreno, have been body shamed on social media.
“These are world class athletes who are being body shamed. There is something really wrong with our particular way of looking at the world if we can look at someone who is in astonishingly good shape and say, well look at that little bulge,” says Carey.
Monica has felt equally frustrated by what she is seeing these days.
“There was an ad I saw that was Calvin Klein first plus sized model and I was infuriated by it because she was by no means a plus size mode,” says Steffey.
It was a chance meeting that brought this dancer and writer together.
“I happen to walk in and was blown away,” says Carey.
Monica was presenting her senior project at St. Johnsbury Academy last year.
“I watched her put a dancer on stage who was covered with numbers on her body,” says Carey.
“It’s based on the idea of how numbers consume our lives whether it’s calorie counting, how many hours did you exercise, what time of day, just any kind of numbers,” says Steffey.
“The numbers represent all of those numbers that we torture ourselves with,” says Carey.
Those numbers are at the heart of a workshop they have created together, Our Bodies, Our Lives: Mirrors & Numbers. People write about body image and then dancers perform a routine based on what they wrote.
“It changed my life,” says Steffey.
It was Monica’s idea to have participants, herself included, write their lowest and highest weights on their hands. Something Leah did too.
“I really needed to just look at them and say, okay, I am not my numbers,” says Carey.
That’s a lesson both women hope parents pass on as kids head back to school.
Here are some tips from the Mayo clinic on how to help your daughters lead a healthy lifestyle physically and mentally.
Help establish healthy eating habits. Offer healthy meals and snacks.
Counter negative media messages. Expose your daughter to women who are famous for their achievements – not their appearance
Praise achievements. Help your daughter value what she does, rather than what she looks like. .
Promote physical activity particularly those that don’t emphasize a particular weight or body shape
Encourage positive friendships.
Set a good example. Remind your daughter that you exercise and eat a healthy diet for your health, not just to look a certain way.
Leah does writing workshops on many different topics and if you’re interested in one that’s happening soon.
Leah is facilitating the Catamount Writers Project starting next month.
It’s a free, eight week workshop happening through Catamount Arts in St. Johnsbury.
Catamount Arts Writers Project
from myhealtyze http://www.myhealtyze.tk/boosting-body-image-as-kids-head-back-to-school-wcax/
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