Body Image
What Is It?
Body image is what you think about your own body and how you feel about the way you look. Some people are happy with how they look and some people are not. Being unhappy with your body can affect how you think and feel about yourself as a person. Poor body image comes from negative thoughts and feelings about your appearance.
Body image can be closely linked to self-esteem, which is about how much you value yourself and how worthwhile you feel. Developing a positive body image and having good self-esteem is crucial to your happiness as a young person. During puberty your body goes through many changes, which affect how you feel about yourself. You may experience feelings of awkwardness, think you’re not good enough and lack confidence in yourself. These are all natural feelings. Changing the way you think about your body and learning to accept yourself for who you are is the first step to having a healthy body image.
What Might Help?
- Talking to someone. Speak to people who you trust about how you feel such as a friend, family member of staff member at school.
- Doing something positive. This may make yourself feel better and may also help the situation.
- Notice the positives. We all have parts of ourselves that we don’t like. However, it would also be really helpful if you spent time on noticing the things that you do like about yourself – no matter how small those things are!
Useful Clips and Stories:
- People share their thoughts on body image
- An example of how images are altered in the media
- A program on reducing body related talk and teasing
Top Apps:
- Simply Being – available on IPhone, IPad, Windows, Android and Blackberry
- Cognitive Diary CBT Self- Help – available on Google play
- Happier