Anti-bias body image curriculum for high schools

Dear Friend,

Today’s young people are spending more than eight hours each day on their phones and computers. They have ample opportunity to compare their appearance to edited and filtered images of people they see on their social media sites. It is not surprising that 77% of adolescents report “body image distress,” feeling dissatisfied with their own appearance. We know that having a negative perception of their bodies leads to serious mental health consequences such as eating disorders, depression, isolation, anxiety, risky sexual behavior, substance abuse, and low self-esteem.

BE REAL is committed to spreading body confidence resources to young people. We have evidence-based workshops for adults and curricula for youth that are designed to help children develop a healthy relationship to food and their body.

We are proud to announce the completion and successful testing of BE REAL's BodyKind program. Here are some notable highlights of BodyKind:

• The BodyKind high school body image curriculum from BE Real is now accessible and ready for use by educators nationwide. We are partnering with schools and eating disorder non-profits in Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Rhode Island, Oregon, and Minnesota to introduce Body Confident Schools to their communities. More than one hundred teachers have received training and subscribed to the BE REAL resource site.
• BodyKind Goes Global. This autumn, we are expanding the curriculum beyond the United States and conducting testing in Dublin, Ireland, where 57 teachers have already received training for its implementation. We hope to distribute BodyKind to other countries soon.
• The BodyKind team published an article in the Body Image research journal. The article focuses on the results from the BodyKind high school body image curriculum pilot study. This publication serves as a confirmation that our curriculum is indeed providing the intended benefits to our students. You can access the article here: https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1htnr6BgRu9hvm
• BodyKind's influence is expanding to middle schoolers and college students. We are currently developing a curriculum on How to Eat based on Intuitive Eating principles for middle schoolers and high schoolers. We have a version of BodyKind coming out for middle school and college student activity groups. 

Thank you for your past support at GlobalGiving. We could use your help now more than ever to develop and expand BodyKind’s reach!

Confidently yours,

Denise Hamburger

Executive Director of BE REAL