Teens – Body Image and Beyond Workbook

Body image affects males and females. Puberty’s physical changes, combined with identity, popularity, and athletic pressures, contribute to adolescent challenges.

Food and weight are not the only issues; preoccupation with facial features, skin, hair, clothes and height, and striving for brawny builds or hourglass figures undermine peace of mind and divert attention from other aspects of self and life.

Teens – Body Image and Beyond helps teens to accept their body types and inherited features, see differences as distinctions, and know their appearance is not their identity. Media messages about teen body image, online profiles, friends, sports, eating disorders, muscle madness, temptations to use steroids or diet pills, and other issues are addressed. Teens will be encouraged to value variety in shapes and sizes and to embrace their own and others’ uniqueness.

Young people who wish to change alterable traits will receive nutrition and fitness tips. Teens with gender identity concerns will know that they are not alone and they will learn how to access professional expertise. Dating is laden with teen body image issues; teens will consider whether they pursue partner-pressured perfection or are self-directed. Teens will identify the non-physical appeal and qualities they seek in partners and relationships. While the intensity of body image challenges is validated, teens will be encouraged to build character, ponder ethical dilemmas, see struggles as steppingstones, and find ways to be charitable.

Teens like to be active and interact; games, role plays, panel discussions and team activities promote movement and fun; thought-provoking questions encourage verbal and artistic expression; teens create posters, poetry, slogans and skits; they play expert advisors to each other.

Teens that prefer private self-examination are equally served with worksheets and a body image scale in each chapter. Facilitators who believe their teens need introspection rather than interaction have that option; most sessions are adaptable for individual or group activities.

The workbook is divided in ten chapters with two to nine sessions per chapter. Each session includes clear directions for the facilitator including purpose and goal of the session, key background information on the specific subject, and interactive activities, including a body image scale, to use in a group or one-on-one setting.

The ten chapters include:

1. My Profile
2. My Friends
3. My Genes and My Genes
4. Shape, Size and Sports
5. A Different Perspective
6. Body Size Diversity
7. Are You What You Eat?
8. Work Out or Play?
9. Sexual Image
10. Beyond Body