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"You can see that my smile is slightly crooked, my hair is awkward and it won't all stay back. I've been trying to love myself for what I see as flaws and I like this picture because of them."

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"I'm not 100% sure why I like this photo I just can never find a a way to hate it or delete it. I like the filter and this picture reminds me that even through all my imperfections I'm still loved for who I am."

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I like this photo because I actually had a nice smile in it, unlike the other million where my smile has looked like I'm trying to discretely let out a fart.

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"I like my eyes in this and my smile is nice."

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"I like this photo of myself because I love my smile. It also reflects my happy, friendly personality and shows my love for music."

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"I like this picture because I think I look really happy. And I'm gonna be vain and say I was having a good hair day and my makeup looked good lol  And I mean come on that hat though!"

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"I like it because I'm with Jessica and we're at my cousins grad party that was really fun."

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"I like this picture of myself because my eyes are bright, I am smiling big and it looks like I am genuinely happy (:"

-Elise, 15

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"I really like this picture because I have a genuine smile and look myself. Also, I like how this photo reflects my self-confidence. I look truly happy like I usually am and that's what really makes me like this picture. Additionally, my hair looks good and the lighting is pretty good too."
Stephanie Flint, 15

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"I like the way my eyes look in it. And it looks like I'm focusing on something but you don't know what 😂"

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"I like this picture because I think it shows my personality and who I am on the inside more than what's on the outside. It's kind of dysfunctional but I'm genuinely happy in this picture and that's why I like it.

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"So here I was at a buffalo bills game after FREEZING the whole game I got to go down on the field and it was the most fun ever!"

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"This one because it shows my flaws, but still makes them cute."

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"I like this picture because my hair looks really good in it and my teeth are nice."

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"I like this photo because I'm actually nice forcing my smile in this picture somebody behind the camera was making me laugh."

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"I like this picture because am wearing my favorite color, maroon, and it is a simple picture. There isn't too much to look at but its hard to miss. I like the way everything falls so naturally in the picture, I look carefree and it seems like I'm happy and stress free. This is one of my favorite pictures because the color maroon is like a happy color for me. Like lavender is used to take the stress away from people's bodies, maroon is used to keep a smile on my face essentially(:"

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I read this book in eighth grade and remember really enjoying it. I found it to be refreshing in its content mainly because of how Ellen changes throughout the story. I found that she began in a spot that I related to in my own life. She was quiet and primarily unnoticed, not particularly gifted in anything and lacking self confidence. By the end of the book Ellen is able make her own choices and has much greater self confidence. She learns the her hard work in weight loss paid off and genuinely loves who she has become. This book was my first memory of a book where the protagonist who struggled with obesity was proactive about her weight loss, although dependent on Jeff who encourages her to do so. In the end Ellen has the epiphany that she is capable of doing these things on her own. She understands that she is capable of loving herself for her hard work and transformation.

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Andrew, R., Tiggemann, M., & Clark, L. (2015). Predictors and health-related outcomes of
positive body image in adolescent girls: A prospective study. Developmental
Psychology, 52 (3).

This article focuses on the implications and process leading up to intuitive eating and the effects it has on one's      body image. The authors walk through the definitions of both intuitive eating as well as positive body image. They then move onto the stages of acceptance of intuitive eating and the effect of this, pointing to the acceptance and appreciation of one’s own body.

Cordes, M., Vocks, S., Dusing, R., Bauer, A., & Waldorf, M. (2016). Male body image and

visual attention towards oneself and other men. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 17 (3)

243-254.

This article is based off of the a study that tracks the eye movements across images that are displayed while asking men to respond to a statement. One section of this article I found particularly applicable to my project was the explanations of why the experiment was being done. The authors go on to explain the lack of information when it comes to men and their body image projected in social settings.

Urgesi, C. (2015). Multiple perspectives on body image research. European Psychologist, 20 (1),

1-5.

In this article the author focuses on the sources of body image and both the physical and psychological sources. The author also describes how body image is altered when an individual encounters body dysmorphia and eating disorders. One idea that I found particularly interesting was that the author supports the theory that women take on an objective view of their bodies to be judged on physical characteristics.

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"I like this photo of my self because
1)I was in Canada and it was my first memorable Canada trip and I got to spend time with my family

2 )I loved how I looked because lighting was great that day and I made a great outfit choice!"

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"My name is Alex and I am 16 years old. I like this picture because it shows my fun loving personality and it also shows what I would look like with a handlebar mustache which is a goal of mine in the future."

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Hey everybody!  I found a list of books that I thought you might enjoy. Feel free to check them out and let me know how you like them.
*Some of these may include some trigger warnings for eating disorders, but remember YOU are beautiful the way that you are.

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Fat Kid Rules The World by K. L. Going

"Whats ironic," he adds, shaking his head, "is that everyone's so busy trying not to look like they're looking at you that they're really not looking at you."

Shattering Glass by Gail Giles

"Simon Glass was easy to hate. I never knew exactly why, there was just too much to pick from. I guess, really, we each hated him for a different reason, but we didn't realize it until the day we killed him."

Hunger by Jackie Morsel Kessler

"Living means constantly growing closer to death. Satisfaction only temporarily relieves hunger. Find the balance, and plant your feet."

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher

"From a distance,' he says, 'my car looks just like every other car on the freeway, and Sarah Byrnes looks just like the rest of us. And if she's going to get help, she'll get it from herself or she'll get it from us. Let me tell you why I brought this up. Because the other day when I saw how hard it was for Mobe to go to the hospital to see her, I was embarrassed that I didn't know her better, that I ever laughed at one joke about her. I was embarrassed that I let some kid go to school with me for twelve years and turned my back on pain that must be unbearable. I was embarrassed that I haven't found a way to include her somehow the way Mobe has."

Butter by Erin Jade Lange

"If you can stomach it, you're invited to watch... as I eat myself to death."

"The Fat Girl Code of Conduct: The Earth, My Butt, and Other Round Things by Carolyn Mackler

1. Any sexual activity is a secret. No public displays of affection.
2. Don't discuss your weight with him.
3. Go further than skinny girls. If you can't sell him on your body, you'd better overcompensate with sexual perks.
4. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever push the relationship thing. "

Skinny by Donna Cooner
"It just wasn't fair. God made some people naturally skinny and some people naturally fat. I'd never know how my life would have been different if I'd been one of the ones He made skinny. I didn't know how He chose. This one will be blonde, with long thin legs and great skin. This one will be short and fat with legs that rub together when she walks. I just knew I wasn't one of the lucky ones."

Perfect by Ellen Hopkins
"Fake
Is that what you are
if you choose to improve
the basic not perfect you?"

The List by Siobhan Vivian
"Sometimes, when you get something new, you trick yourself into believing it has the power to change absolutely everything about you."

The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend by Kody Keplinger
"Calling Vikki a slut or a whore was just like calling somebody the Duff. It was insulting and hurtful, and it was one of those titles that just fed off the inner fear every girl must have from time to time. Slut, bitch, prude, tease, ditz. They were all the same. Every girl felt like one of these sexist labels described her at some point."
What's on your list? Please see our previous Top 10 List on Body Image and Eating Disorders

Some articles about obesity in teen fiction:
ALAN "Meant to Be Huge"
Plus Size Teen Fiction
Weighing in on Weight by Rae Carson

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Top 10: Teen titles that deal with obesity and body image

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Fat Kid Rules The World by K. L. Going "Whats ironic," he adds, shaking his head, "is that everyone's so busy trying not to look like they're looking at you that they're really not looking at you." Shattering Glass by Gail Giles "Simon Glass was easy to hate.

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"I really like this picture because not only do my teeth look nice 😂 but I was super happy for no reason this night, I didn't need good lighting or a million snapchat filters (ok just one) to take a cute picture bc I was happy"

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"Hi, my name is Nelly and I'm 15 years old and I really like this picture because I remember being so incredibly happy in the moment the picture was taken and the place I was in was so beautiful, and I feel like the picture shows those things"

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Here's a link to really helpful site I found. It explains some basic definitions of different types of eating disorders and other key terms you may hear me say. Also I gives some shocking statistics. My favorite feature on this site is the comparison chart between average American women's bodies, barbies and store mannequins. Check it out!

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Research suggests that about one percent (1%) of female adolescents have anorexia. That means that about one out of every one hundred young women between ten and twenty are starving themselves, sometimes to death. There do not seem to be reliable figures for younger children and older adults, but such cases, while they do occur, are not common.

Research suggests that about four percent (4%), or four out of one hundred, college-aged women have bulimia. About 50% of people who have been anorexic develop bulimia or bulimic patterns. Because people with bulimia are secretive, it is difficult to know how many older people are affected. Bulimia is rare in children.

Only about 10% of people with anorexia and bulimia are male. This gender difference may reflect our society's different expectations for men and women. Men are supposed to be strong and powerful. They feel ashamed of skinny bodies and want to be big and powerful. Women, on the other hand, are supposed to be tiny, waif-like, and thin. They diet to lose weight, making themselves vulnerable to binge eating. Some develop rigid and compulsive overcontrol. Dieting and the resulting hunger are two of the most powerful eating disorders triggers known.

Anorexia and bulimia affect primarily people in their teens and twenties, but studies report both disorders in children as young as six and individuals as old as seventy-six.

Studies suggest that about sixty percent of adult Americans, both male and female, are overweight. About one third (34%) are obese, meaning that they are 20% or more above normal, healthy weight. Many of these people have binge eating disorder.

In addition, about 31 percent of American teenage girls and 28 percent of boys are somewhat overweight. An additional 15 percent of American teen girls and nearly 14 percent of teen boys are obese. (Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, January 2004) Causes include fast food, snacks with high sugar and fat content, use of automobiles, increased time spent in front of TV sets and computers, and a generally more sedentary lifestyles than slimmer peers.

A recent study reported in Drugs and Therapy Perspectives reports that about one percent of women in the United States have binge eating disorder, as do thirty percent of women who seek treatment to lose weight. In other studies, up to two percent, or one to two million adults in the U.S., have problems with binge eating.

About 72% of alcoholic women younger than 30 also have eating disorders. (Health magazine, Jan/Feb 2002)

Because anorexia athletica is not a formal diagnosis, it has not been studied as rigorously as the official eating disorders. We have no idea how many people exercise compulsively.

Not yet an official diagnosis, but may achieve that status soon. BDD affects about two percent of people in the U.S. and strikes males and females equally, usually before age eighteen (70% of the time). Sufferers are excessively concerned about appearance, body shape, body size, weight, perceived lack of muscles, facial blemishes, and so forth. In some cases BDD can lead to steroid abuse, unnecessary plastic surgery, and even suicide. BDD is treatable and begins with an evaluation by a mental health care provider.

We can only guess at the vast numbers of people who have subclinical or threshhold eating disorders. They are too much preoccupied with food and weight. Their eating and weight control behaviors are not normal, but they are not disturbed enough to qualify for a formal diagnosis.

In a study reported in Medscape's General Medicine 6(3) 2004, p revalence rates in Western countries for anorexia nervosa ranged from 0.1% to 5.7% in female subjects. Prevalence rates for bulimia nervosa ranged from 0% to 2.1% in males and from 0.3% to 7.3% in female subjects.

Prevalence rates in non-Western countries for bulimia nervosa ranged from 0.46% to 3.2% in female subjects. Studies of eating attitudes indicate abnormal eating attitudes in non-Western countries have been gradually increasing, presumably because of the influence, at least in part, of Western media: movies, TV shows, and magazines. Researchers conclude that the prevalence of eating disorders in non-Western countries is lower than that of Western countries, but it appears to be increasing.

Without treatment, up to twenty percent (20%) of people with serious eating disorders die. With treatment, that number falls to two to three percent (2-3%).

With treatment, about sixty percent (60%) of people with eating disorders recover. They maintain healthy weight. They eat a varied diet of normal foods and do not choose exclusively low-cal and non-fat items. They participate in friendships and romantic relationships. They create families and careers. Many say they feel they are stronger people and more insightful about life in general and themselves in particular than they would have been without the disorder.

In spite of treatment, about twenty percent (20%) of people with eating disorders make only partial recoveries. They remain too much focused on food and weight. They participate only peripherally in friendships and romantic relationships. They may hold jobs but seldom have meaningful careers. Much of each paycheck goes to diet books, laxatives, jazzercise classes, and binge food.

The remaining twenty percent (20%) do not improve, even with treatment. They are seen repeatedly in emergency rooms, eating disorders programs, and mental health clinics. Their quietly desperate lives revolve around food and weight concerns, spiraling down into depression, loneliness, and feelings of helplessness and hopelessness.

Please note: The study of eating disorders is a relatively new field. We have no good information on the long-term recovery process. We do know that recovery usually takes a long time, perhaps on average three to five years of slow progress that includes starts, stops, slides backwards, and ultimately, movement in the direction of mental and physical health.

If you believe you are in the forty percent of people who do not recover from eating disorders, give yourself a break. Get into treatment and stay there. Give it all you have. You may surprise yourself and find you are in the sixty percent after all.

From England: A 1998 survey done by Exeter University included 37,500 young women between twelve and fifteen. Over half (57.5%) listed appearance as the biggest concern in their lives. The same study indicated that 59% of the twelve and thirteen-year-old girls who suffered from low self-esteem were also dieting.

Dieting teens: More than half of teenaged girls are, or think they should be, on diets. They want to lose all or some of the forty pounds that females naturally gain between 8 and 14. About three percent of these teens go too far, becoming anorexic or bulimic.

Unrealistic expectations: Magazine pictures are electronically edited and airbrushed. Many entertainment celebrities are underweight, some anorexically so. How do we know what we should look like? It's hard. The table below compares average women in the U. S. with Barbie Doll and department store mannequins. It's not encouraging. (Health magazine, September 1997; and NEDIC, a Canadian eating disorders advocacy group)

Because physicians are not required to report eating disorders to a health agency, and because people with these problems tend to be secretive, denying that they even have a disorder, we have no way of knowing exactly how many people in this country are affected.

We can study small groups of people, determine how many of them are eating disordered, and then extrapolate to the general population. The numbers are usually given as percentages, and they are as close as we can get to an accurate estimate of the total number of people affected by eating disorders.

Now, that having been said, the journal Clinician Reviews [13(9]) 2003] estimates that each year about five million Americans are affected by an eating disorder. But there is disagreement.

The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders states that approximately eight million people in the U.S. have anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and related eating disorders. Eight million people represents about three percent (3%) of the total population. Put another way, according to ANAD, about three out of every one hundred people in this country eats in a way disordered enough to warrant treatment. If you want to know how they arrived at this number, e-mail their staff.

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Statistics: How many people have eating disorders? Anorexia nervosa Research suggests that about one percent (1%) of female adolescents have anorexia. That means that about one out of every one hundred young women between ten and twenty are starving themselves, sometimes to death. There do not seem to be reliable figures for younger children and ...

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In my teen years I loved to read. I still do, but now I read more for different reasons. Then, it was a major source of the way I could find a way to cope with the various struggles I was facing. This being said, I have and still do struggle with my body image. Its a hard concept to grasp.

Does my perception of my body hold me back from doing things I really want to? Does my physical body effect how I view my personality? Is it possible to feel positive about my body?

I don't really have answers to these questions- except for the last one, to which I say,  YES!

The primary inspiration for this page is from my personal exposure to adolescent literature and my noticed lack of body positive materials for teens to read. This is an area that can have significant impact on teenagers and the choices that they make. Being informed about the different types of books is one of the best ways to make good choices.

I’m currently taking an adolescent literature class and we’ve read a few different genres including “teen problem” novels. This is the type of book I would typically choose when I was in middle and high school. These books not only gave me a place where I could recognize characters like me but also helped me to see that I was not alone in my struggle and give me small ways to deal with the issues I faced on a day to day basis. After thinking about all the books I’ve read from the genre I realized that there were not enough books that focused on the body positivity that I have been trying to take on. Over 70% of the time when a person struggles with body dysmorphic disorder, it starts before the age of eighteen. If there was a way to help teens feel good about themselves and their bodies, why wouldn’t we help contribute to this positive outlook that needs to be presented to those who are struggling?

The main goal of this site is to bring to light the deficit found in teen novels when it comes to body positivity. I plan to post reviews of books I found particularly helpful when I was struggling, statistics based off of body image and teens, pictures of my friends and others I know that promote healthy body image, quotes and some other cool resources!