This week I talk to writer, campaigner and journalist Molly Forbes. Molly is author of the book Body Happy Kids: how to help children and teens love the skin they’re in.
In this episode, Molly shares her own journey to becoming body happy and how that led to her passion to help parents and children be happy in their bodies too.
We go on to talk about a wide range of topics with lots of practical ideas to help you raise body happy kids and become more body happy yourself. We talk about:
- Anti-fat bias, thin privilege and how they are intertwined with sexism, racism and ableism.
- Why Molly talks about “body happy” instead of “body image”
- How to challenge the idea that some bodies are good bodies and some bodies are bad bodies depending on how they look
- Why body image is more than how we feel when we look in the mirror
- How to feel at peace with your body in a world that doesn’t equate appearance with value
- Ways to improve your own body happiness and undo your biases around weight and appearance so you can model this to your children
- Helping children recognise diet culture
- The myth that health is directly linked to body size
- Why we need to shift our focus from individual responsibility to addressing the bigger systems that influence our health and wellbeing.
- How to help children develop a long term healthy relationship with food and movement.
I absolutely loved this conversation with Molly. I highly recommend following her on social media @mollyjforbes @bodyhappyorg and checking out her Body Happy website.
You can download Molly's free information pack about the UK’s National Child Measurement Programme.
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