 Hi, this is Pookey and a sleepy buddy. We went for a long walk this morning So today I am going to talk to you about how to promote positive body image If you are someone who works with kids or maybe you're a parent now This is a massive topic and one that I will undoubtedly return to another point But today I'm just going to share kind of four top tips if you like For how we can promote body confidence positive body image number one is that we need to think about ourselves first and foremost So we've got to walk the talk. We need to be positive body image role models for the young people in our lives This can be really tough and sometimes we have to fake it till we make it But just take a moment to stop and think about what the things you're doing and what the things you're saying How they're going to be read by the kids around you because even unwittingly we all are role models to somebody So think about how you want your behaviors and things to be interpreted and then think a little bit more carefully about the Things that you say and do because many of us have got massive hang-ups about our own bodies and our own body confidence is low But when we express that then what we teach young people is that this is normal. This is okay We shouldn't respect our bodies our bodies are not good things Next is that we should look to celebrate diversity. So bodies come in all shapes and sizes and they come in a variety of ability and disability a variety of color and ethnicity Short tall thin fat you name it they come in many different ways and that's kind of cool We're all different and it's great if we can encourage our kids to celebrate that to celebrate diversity of all different types But to understand that yeah, we're all different And that we can be healthy in many different ways and we can be cool and fun and funky in many different ways And that we shouldn't all try and conform to a norm But instead we should try and find what makes us tick what makes us special and to appreciate that we and our friends are All going to be different and that's cool. So celebrating diversity big one Um, the next one is to encourage constructive criticism. So we want our kids to be Critical consumers essentially we want to them to grow up as critical consumers We want them to look not just at the the media and advertising industry and say hey, that's not real That's airbrush. We want them to look at the pictures that their friends are sharing on social media Um, or even the pictures that we kind of save of ourselves and share as a family And remember that everything we see around us essentially is an airbrushed version of the world And sometimes that can make it really tough and make us feel bad because we're seeing perfection around us all the time Because who takes one selfie and uploads it nobody we take 20 100 We choose the best one. We apply a filter and hey presto. We look like a supermodel But when we are consuming that from other people, we don't stop and think about that We just think oh lumineck Why are all my friends beautiful and I'm so ugly and even when we know this it's hard not to apply that thinking Um, so we need to really really encourage that from our kids and actually again encourage them Maybe to be a bit more real in their interactions with people encourage them to Share the goofy stuff too to have a bit of fun with it to realize that you don't have to look perfect all the time Um, and that can really help and it can help some of what they're consuming But yeah be a critical consumer whenever we are seeing something really question Is that real? Why is it being presented in that way? What what story is this trying to tell? Um, and does it matter? Do I have to look like that? Finally, um, the final thing is to make sure that we are building multiple pillars of self-esteem in our kids So that they are not overly reliant on the pillar of um How they look so when we think of a temple, sorry, sorry buddy So we would have multiple pillars holding up a temple Yeah, so you imagine that and if we take one of them out then the whole thing comes crumbling to the ground If we only have that one pillar and it's how we look and then we begin to really feel self-conscious about how we look Or we doubt it for some reason then the whole thing's going to come tumbling down But if instead we've got I'm great at maths. I love animals. I have loads of friends and I look great Then if the one about how we look begins to become questionable then again You know, the pillar's going to kind of stay standing on the the remaining pillars of self-esteem We can find pillars of any kind. Um, but these are things that make a kid unique They're the things they enjoy they're the things that when you ask them to tell you about themselves They're the first things that they would list. So yeah, multiple pillars of self-esteem Okay, as I say massive topic really really tiny intro I hope it's at least a little bit helpful and gives you a little bit of food for thought about how you as a parent A teacher someone working with kids can help to promote positive body image If you found this helpful, please leave a comment or like or subscribe. Um, please subscribe. Thank you