BE REAL’s BodyKind™

High School, Body Image Curriculum

Get the curriculum

Curriculum Overview

Today’s explosion of visual social media has created an epidemic of body image problems for young people. Seventy-seven percent of adolescents experience “body image distress.” Research ties body dissatisfaction to a host of adolescent mental health problems from eating disorders to depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and low self-esteem. And, COVID made it worse. There is a critical need for a body image curriculum to be taught in schools.

BE REAL created BodyKind™ to provide an evidence-based, high school body image curriculum to address the needs of today’s students. Our 4-lesson curriculum for high school, health or advisory class starts with what the field of eating disorder prevention has learned from 20 years of research on body image and eating disorder prevention. We’ve added a discussion of Appearance Bias–judgment based on physical features–to the conversation. We talk about how society’s preference for certain bodies affects student body confidence. We’ve also added evidence-based self-compassion tools for students to use when they compare themselves to images of people they see on social media.

BE REAL’s Bodykind curriculum includes:

Four 50-minute lesson plans

Worksheets

In-class exercises

Classroom slides

Training videos for teachers

BE REAL’s Bodykind Lesson Summaries

Lesson 1 - Appearance Bias

Students learn about appearance bias—when a person is judged and treated differently based on how they look, rather than who they are or how they behave. Students take a gallery walk around the room of 24 Understanding Others body stories. Click here for a preview of the gallery walk.  These stories help students gain an awareness of how people of different sizes and abilities, with different skin shades, facial features, gender representations, and other identities experience the world. We discuss the impact of how appearance ideals and appearance bias have pressured people to try to conform to societal ideals of attractiveness. We analyze the costs to students of responding to the appearance pressure in their environment. Students also explore how body confidence can be enhanced by (1) viewing their bodies as instruments, not ornaments; (2) having gratitude for what their body does for them everyday; and (3) accepting natural body diversity.

Lesson 1 - Appearance Bias

Students learn about appearance bias—when a person is judged and treated differently based on how they look, rather than who they are or how they behave. Students take a gallery walk around the room of 24 Understanding Others body stories. Click here for a preview of the gallery walk.  These stories help students gain an awareness of how people of different sizes and abilities, with different skin shades, facial features, gender representations, and other identities experience the world. We discuss the impact of how appearance ideals and appearance bias have pressured people to try to conform to societal ideals of attractiveness. We analyze the costs to students of responding to the appearance pressure in their environment. Students also explore how body confidence can be enhanced by (1) viewing their bodies as instruments, not ornaments; (2) having gratitude for what their body does for them everyday; and (3) accepting natural body diversity.

Lesson 2 - Self-Compassion and Social Media

Once students become aware of appearance pressures, we analyze how these pressures show up in their lives and in the media they consume. We discuss how self-compassion is an effective tool to cope with the negative comparisons we all make to the pictures we see on social media and other places these ideals show up in our lives. Experiential exercises reframe the negative comparisons we all make in our minds to kinder, more self-compassionate thoughts that will ultimately serve students better.

Lesson 3 - Compassion for Others

Lesson 3 teaches students how to apply their newly cultivated compassion for themselves to other people in their lives. Students discuss how to create a kinder environment by quitting “body talk” and recognizing that bodies function fine in all shades, shapes, and sizes. We analyze how students’ thoughts, feelings, and actions are more positive in a kinder environment.

Lesson 4 - Taking Action

In Lesson 4 students are given the tools to become change agents. They focus on steps they can take to create a better world. We help students create their own roadmap for taking an idea from an issue to action. They will learn tested, tangible steps to create an action plan on an issue they feel strongly about, empowering them to make positive changes in their communities and greater world.

In April 2022, BE REAL trained teachers at Brooklyn Center Community High School (BCCHS), a high school north of Minneapolis, Minnesota, with 92% students of color and 97% of students receiving free and reduced-priced lunch. BCCHS teachers delivered all four BodyKind lessons to 175 BCCHS students. Students were surveyed by our academic team from UNC Charlotte to see what they thought of BodyKind. Teachers and students loved the curriculum. Teachers enjoyed teaching it, and found the curriculum comprehensive. The students liked the subject matter, overwhelmingly felt it needed to be discussed in school, and found it helpful for their lives.

To learn more about the BodyKind Pilot findings, download the BodyKind Pilot Factsheet.

Bodykind was created by a team of International Body Image Experts

BE REAL’s BodyKind has been researched, written, and tested by an international team of academics and experts:

Denise Hamburger

Denise Hamburger

Executive Director of BE REAL USA, curriculum writer, teacher, and attorney

Zali Yager

Zali Yager

Associate Professor at the Institute for Health and Sport at Victoria University; CEO, The Body Confident Collective

Jennifer Webb

Jennifer Webb

Associate Professor in the Department of Psychological Science and Health Psychology at UNC Charlotte

Ciara Mahon

Ciara Mahon

Post-doctoral researcher in the Youth Mental Health Lab at University College, Dublin

Mayra Almaraz

Mayra Almaraz

Social science curriculum specialist at the Chicago Public Schools, Teaching Tolerance award winning teacher

Luciana Zuest

Luciana Zuest

Associate Professor of Kinesiology at Towson University. Member of the SHAPE America Board of Directors.

Jan Mooney

Jan Mooney

Doctoral student in the Health Psychology Ph.D. Program at UNC Charlotte

K.G. Smith

K.G. Smith

Healthcare administration graduate student at UNC Charlotte

Tran Tran

Tran Tran

Doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology and Health Psychology Department at UNC Charlotte

Verenice Gomez-Trejo

Verenice Gomez-Trejo

Pre-med junior at the University of Chicago

Be Real’s Bodykind Meets US Health Education Curriculum Standards

Hecat Standards

The Health Education Curriculum Analysis Tool (HECAT) is an assessment tool to help school districts and schools analyze health education curriculum. The BodyKind curriculum meets HECAT Standard 2: Analyzing Influences.

HECAT Standard 2: Students will analyze the influence of family, peers, culture, media, and other factors on health behaviors. Grades 9–12 Skill Expectations:

          • Analyze how culture supports and challenges health beliefs, practices, and behaviors.
          • Analyze how peers and perceptions of norms, personal attitudes, values, and beliefs influence healthy and unhealthy behaviors.
          • Analyze how school and community affect personal health practices and behaviors.
          • Analyze the effect of media and technology on personal, family, and community health.
          • Differentiate the relevant influences, including family, culture, peers, school, community, media, technology, and public health policies, on personal health practices and behaviors.

      CDC’s School Health Guidelines: Characteristics of an Effective Health Education Curriculum Guideline 2: School environment: Establish school environments that support healthy eating and physical activity.

      Create a school environment that encourages a healthy body image, shape, and size diversity among all students and staff members; is accepting of diverse abilities; and does not tolerate weight‐based teasing.

How to get BE REAL’s Bodykind High School Body Image Curriculum

Individual Teachers

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The curriculum is currently available! To get BodyKind you’ll need to register on our resource site, here, with your username (email) and password. Then use your username and password to log in to the site, here.

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View a 60-minute video on Body Confident Schools, and take a 10-question test. When you get 90% on the test you get access to the following for free:

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BodyKind curriculum:

    • The BodyKind Toolkit (48 Pages)
      • Lesson Plans
      • Worksheets
      • Lots of helpful information for you to teach it in class
    • Google or PowerPoint Slides for Class

     

    • 24 Understanding Others Body Stories (PDFs)
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    If you are able to help us with our efficacy research on BodyKind, by giving your students a pre- and post survey, please fill out our Google Form. We will contact you. 

    Link to Google Form

    Zoom Group Training

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    We will train your group on Zoom for 3 hours on how to create a body confident school environment. We will go through best practices for teaching the BodyKind curriculum and discuss specific issues at your school.

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    $1500 donation to BE REAL.  You can make your donation here.

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    Optional: Each participant can take an 20-question test to become a BE REAL Ambassador.

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    For access to the BodyKind curriculum teachers will be directed to take 10-question test. When teachers get a 90% on the test they will be given access to:

    • The BodyKind Toolkit (48 Pages)
      • Lesson Plans
      • Worksheets
      • Tips and Tools for Teaching
    • Google Slides for Class

     

    • Understanding Others Body Stories (PDFs)
    Let's Begin

    In-Person Group Training

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    We will train your group in person for 3 hours on how to create a body confident school environment. We will go through best practices for teaching the BodyKind curriculum and discuss specific issues at your school.

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    $1500 donation to BE REAL plus travel expenses. You can make your donation here.

    ^

    Optional: Each participant can take an 20-question test to become a BE REAL Ambassador.

    ^

    For access to the BodyKind curriculum teachers will be directed to take 10-question test. When teachers get a 90% on the test they will be given access to:

    • The BodyKind Toolkit (48 Pages)
      • Lesson Plans
      • Worksheets
      • Homework
      • Tips and Tools for Teaching
    • Google Slides for Class

     

    • Understanding Others Body Stories (PDFs)
    Let's Begin

    “Our beliefs about bodies disproportionately impact those whose race, gender, sexual orientation, ability, and age deviate from our default notions. The further from the default, the greater the impact. We are all affected – but not equally.”

    ― Sonya Renee Taylor, The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love