BE REAL’s BodyKind™
High School, Body Image Curriculum
BodyKind 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” (Milton et al., 2021). Research ties body dissatisfaction to a host of adolescent mental health problems from eating disorders to depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and low self-esteem (McLean et al., 2022; Perkins & Brausch, 2019; Bornioli et al., 2019; Paxton et al., 2006). And, COVID made it worse (Radhakrishnan et al., 2022). There is a critical need for a body image curriculum to be taught in schools.
BE REAL created BodyKind™ to provide an research-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.
“These topics are not what we usually learn in school and having this chance to be able to learn more about myself and my body was great. I hope you know that what you are doing is changing people’s lives.“
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 Minneapolis, Minnesota high school with 92% students of color. BCCHS teachers delivered all four BodyKind lessons to 175 BCCHS students. Then students were surveyed by our team from UNC Charlotte to see what they thought.
In May 2023, BE REAL went back to Minneapolis for another pilot study with 300 more students, this time from Armstrong High School and Cooper High School. Our feasibility and acceptability pilot results were validated a second time.
To learn more about the BodyKind Pilot findings, download the BodyKind Pilot Factsheet.
You can read about our pilot study in the Body Image: An International Journal of Research
“There are some days when I wake up and criticize myself and feel ashamed. However, I have been applying what I learned in this program and now I tell myself to stop. Stop and appreciate who I am. No one in this world is perfect. I can be happy for who I am and love myself.”
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
Executive Director of BE REAL USA, Anti-Bias Antiracist certified curriculum writer, teacher, and attorney
Zali Yager
Associate Professor at the Institute for Health and Sport at Victoria University; CEO, The Body Confident Collective
Jennifer Webb
Associate Professor in the Department of Psychological Science and Health Psychology at UNC Charlotte
Ciara Mahon
Post-doctoral researcher in the Youth Mental Health Lab at University College, Dublin
Mayra Almaraz
Social science curriculum specialist at the Chicago Public Schools, Teaching Tolerance award winning teacher
Luciana Zuest
Associate Professor of Kinesiology at Towson University. Member of the SHAPE America Board of Directors.
Jan Mooney
Doctoral student in the Health Psychology Ph.D. Program at UNC Charlotte
K.G. Smith
Healthcare administration graduate student at UNC Charlotte
Tran Tran
Doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology and Health Psychology Department at UNC Charlotte
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:
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- 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.
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How to get BE REAL’s Bodykind High School Body Image Curriculum
Individual Teachers
View a 70-minute video on Body Confident Schools, and take a 11-question test. When you get 90% on the test you get access to the following for free:
The BodyKind curriculum:
- The BodyKind Toolkit (45 pages)
- Lesson Plans
- Worksheets
- Pages of helpful information for you to teach it in class
- Google or Powerpoint Slides for Class
- Understanding Others Body Stories (PDFs)
Zoom Group Training
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.
$1500 for a 3-hour training
$2000 for a full-day training
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 an 11-question test. When teachers get a 90% on the test they will be given access to:
- The BodyKind Toolkit (45 pages)
- Lesson Plans
- Worksheets
- Tips and Tools for Teaching
- Google or Powerpoint Slides for Class
- Understanding Others Body Stories (PDFs)
In-Person Group Training
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.
$1500 a for 3-hour training plus travel expenses
$2000 for a full-day training plus travel expenses
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 11-question test. When teachers get a 90% on the test they will be given access to:
- The BodyKind Toolkit (45 pages)
- Lesson Plans
- Worksheets
- Tips and Tools for Teaching
- Google or Powerpoint Slides for Class
- Understanding Others Body Stories (PDFs)
Group Training Request Form
Please fill out the form below to request Virtual Group Training for your team. We will be in touch with you in the next few days to start the process.
In-Person Group Training Request Form
Please fill out the form below to request In-Person Group Training for your team. We will be in touch with you in the next few days to start the process.