Teen icon Demi Lovato shocked us all with her recent revelation about her longtime struggle with a negative body image.
“I don’t think there’s going to be a day when I don’t think about food or my body, but I’m living with it, and I wish I could tell young girls to find their safe place and stay with it,” the “Camp Rock” star has said.
She’s certainly not the only Hollywood actress who has struggled with body issues – Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Portia de Rossi, and Megan Fox have all dealt with poor self-esteem.
Yet, the hardest hit with a poor self-image are the numerous young girls influenced by stick-thin Hollywood actresses and fashion models. Young girls will go to extreme measures to be thin. Former plus-size model, Katie Halchishick is on a mission to help the next generation ‘love the skin they are in.’ Katie started up the love your body campaign “Healthy is the New Skinny.” Katie adds, “I have not met a girl or women yet, who hasn’t had to deal with self-hate and body dissatisfaction. We have been taught from a young age to not be satisfied with how we look. We are now seeing girls as young as 7 saying ‘I am fat.’”
In fact, Katie has found 90% of the girls surveyed admitted to skipping meals, not eating at all and/or binging and purging. “We have also realized that these teen girls have no idea what “healthy” looks like because they have never been exposed to it.”
Katie and her “Healthy is the New Skinny” team have set-up multi-media workshops, entitled PUP (Perfectly Unperfected Project), and they visit various schools to educate young girls (and boys) on how to ‘love their bodies and love who they are.’
Katie shared with Healthy Hollywood a few of her self-esteem boosting tips.
Decide that you deserve to have a happy life and start to believe it
If you want to have a healthy relationship with your body, you have to start treating it right. Eating healthy and working out will not only reduce stress, it will make you stronger physically and mentally so you can go after the things you want.
Choose your friends wisely
You deserve to be treated with respect from both your family and friends. It is okay to distance yourself from people who are not supportive or constantly bring you down.
Find your sparkle
Remember when you were a little girl and would roll out of bed with messed up hair and wore mismatched clothes – and didn’t care what anyone else thought because you loved that outfit? Find that girl again, the one who is deep inside you and is okay with who she is and is happy when she does things her way.
All you have are the choices you make
We can tell you to look in the mirror and love who you are…but let’s face it – that never works. What we can give girls is perspective to see that we all feel the same way – whether we are big or small – young or old. We can stop this vicious cycle if we choose to. Do things that make you feel good every day, and when you have a bad day, just know you are not alone.
To find out more about Katie Halchishick and her self-esteem campaign “Healthy is the New Skinny,” head over to www.healthyisthenewskinny.com.
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