How To Help Kids Love Their Bodies
Nearly half of 3- to 6-year-old girls worry about being fat.
My daughter is 4-and-3/4 years old, and she loves her body.
She’s never heard of a good body or a bad body or a nice body or a beach body. She doesn’t yet know many people think fat is bad. She knows people are different shapes and sizes, but no one’s fed her the idea that a certain shape is better, or that anyone’s bigger or smaller because of what they eat or how they live.
And while she knows we don’t feel great if we eat a ton of sugar, she doesn’t know someone might choose not to eat at all, even though they’re hungry.
The specific ways society obsesses over and attempts to control girls’ and women’s bodies feels obvious and often overwhelming to me, but kids aren’t born knowing about it. So far, I’ve worked to keep those messages away from her.
In most ways, I don’t shelter her. We curse and talk about the patriarchy, and racism, and this morning I explained abortion to her and why I’m pro-choice. But when it comes to body image, I want her to love her body. So I try my best to shelter her from societal beauty ideals, and I feel confident I’m making the right choice.
