The 2021 Mission Australia Survey of young people once again saw body image noted as a top-four personal issue of concern, with 33.6% nationally extremely concerned and 45.5% somewhat or slightly concerned, and when the results are broken down by gender the figures jump even higher for females with 47.5% feeling extremely concerned, those are stats to make us sit up and say what can we do to reduce these.
Freedom to Fantastic is our national body image and self esteem campaign that encourages schools and community grounds to run an event or in-class activities to raise the topic of positive body image.
Negative body image can impact someone’s mental health, with mental health and coping with stress also topping the top four issues of personal concern in the survey, the drive to see schools download a Freedom to Feel Fantastic event pack is even stronger, as discussing one topic will also help improve the other.
“We have found that students really get behind the Freedom to Feel Fantastic message, even if their own personal body image is positive the young people may have a friend that is always down on the way they look, or who they are, and they don’t want them to feel that way, they want to help, they want them to feel proud about who they are.” said Lynsey McLeod, Project Officer “Each school runs an event that suits their timetable and with activities that resonate with them, but the feedback is highlighted with statements of what a positive day it was, and how engaged the students were.”
Each school that signs up gets access to an event pack with an event guide full of activity ideas, lesson based ideas, posters, cupcake flags, a student wellbeing booklet and more. In addition to the e-based resources, each school that confirms their event date will also be sent a postal pack containing the ‘Reframe your thinking” activity.