RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
We have vetted resources for you to use with children in classroom settings or for after-school groups. We have conducted research, attended trainings, read countless academic articles on these topics, and become familiar with various body image programs around the world to guide your work in the classroom or at home.
High School
BodyKind™
High School, Body Image Curriculum
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.
More High School Resources
Nutrition Addition
Let’s Eat: Middle School and High School
BE REAL’s mission is to spread body confidence across the country–and now the globe–so every child can grow up with a healthy relationship to food and their body.
Our appearance-obsessed culture contributes to body dissatisfaction and eating disorders in young people today.
The “healthy eating” curriculum taught in schools may actually be part of the problem, doing “more harm than good” for students’ mental health (Lin et al., 2023).
BE REAL’s HOW TO EAT lessons help young people listen to their bodies and take care of both their bodies and minds.
Don’t Weigh Me in School
The Student Body: Middle School and High School
Forty percent of US children live in states where schools send BMI reports to parents (Madsen et al., 2021). Millions of US children have been weighed in schools over the years due to school BMI screening policies. Decades after these weigh-ins began, research has proved school BMI screenings to be a failed policy. The screenings have yielded no positive child health outcomes either on a population level or on an individual level. Instead, these screenings have proven harmful to students’ mental health.
Access the slide presentation here: The Student Body Google Slide Presentation.
Download the Teacher Toolkit here: The Student Body Teacher Toolkit.
College
BodyKind™
College, Body Image Curriculum
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Middle School
Embrace Kids
Embrace Kids is building out a suite of age-appropriate resources, developed by teachers and body image experts, based on the latest science and research.
The FREE Embrace Kids Middle School Program includes five lessons that begin with a video from the EMBRACE KIDS film, edited for the classroom setting, followed by evidence-based activities. The Program pack contains all of the videos, slides, and worksheets you need, so you can guide your students with confidence.
Elementary School
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LGBTQ+ Resources
Dove’s Proud to Be Me: A body positiviy tool for LGBTQ+ youth
During the program, young people will explore different sources of appearance pressure and practice different skills to push back against the desire to conform to appearance norms.
Coaches
It is not always possible to devote enough time to the topic of body image in school, due to curriculum requirements. Many students would benefit from an increased focus on preventing body dissatisfaction.
These programs can be implemented in an extracurricular club or as part of a youth group or organization.
