YWCA girls love their bodies

YWCA girls love their bodies

The YWCA is on a mission to ensure young women in New Zealand never have a ‘fat-day’ again.

YWCA Auckland will host the annual Future Leaders Leadership Forum on June 25, 2011 on ‘NoBODYs Perfect: Promoting Body Confidence’ in partnership with the Eating Difficulties Education Network (EDEN). The interactive programme for around 150 young women is a smorgasbord of training ideas to promote body confidence, self-esteem and critical thinking including analysis of media messages, use of photoshop and appearance bullying.

“Young women face intense pressure to look perfect but perfect is an impossible ideal to achieve, especially when different ideals change with time and culture. YWCA works to empower young women through the YWCA Future Leaders programme and celebrate our diversity as young women in New Zealand. The Leadership Forum will lead the young women through an engaging and exciting journey to body confidence that they will be able to take back into their communities and lead by example,” says Kathryn Doughty , Team Leader of the YWCA Auckland Future Leaders programme.

The day will also involve young women throughout the country. YWCA of Hamilton young women’s coordinator Abby de Lisle says body image is a huge issue for young women in New Zealand. “The media portrays the stereotypical beautiful women as being stick-thin with big hair and tanned skin. Young women feel they have to measure up to this image and may feel depressed or ugly when they realise they can’t. Young women need to understand this image is fairly unobtainable for most of us, and realise no one is perfect. The YWCA can provide the voice that teaches young women to love their own body and stop comparing themselves with others.”

The YWCA is continuously helping young women address the issue of body image having developed a ‘Like Your Body’ resource that promotes positive body image and empowerment of young women. The booklet is the organisations most popular resource and reinforces the reality that body image issues and eating disorders affect a large number of young women and women in New Zealand.

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