It is alarming how easy body-shaming becomes a topic for teasing and bullying to little kids. With peer pressure, its effects can be more damaging to the mind of someone innocent. But how can we adults protect them from this if we struggle with it? In this episode of The Fit Mess, Emily Lauren Dick talks about her book Body Positive: A Guide to Loving Your Body and what it tells us about body positivity and the steps we can take to make it practical in our daily lives. The episode also tackles the role of media in the issue, how it affects both women and men, and how your body perception can affect your parenting. Find out how a healthy body outlook is defined in this episode of The Fit Mess with Emily Lauren Dick!

One Move Toward Body Positivity 

For Emily, there are countless ways where one can move toward body positivity. Focusing on non-physical achievements, dressing comfortably, and talking to a therapist are just a few of the many steps people can take to nourish a healthier outlook of their bodies. But aside from the ones she mentions in her book, Body Positive: A Guide to Loving Your Body, Emily decides to take this movement forward through one particular step. She wants advertisers to take accountability for the images they show. By partnering with the organization Live Life Unfiltered, they plan to soon launch a campaign called ‘Show Me Unfiltered.’ This campaign will take after the law in France, effective in 2017, that required commercials to use disclaimers for any sort of image that is digitally altered. Being the leading source of oversexualized and unrealistic models of what a person’s body should look like, especially a woman’s body, this big move is a demand of transparency for mainstream media. The law being successful in France is proof of how it can possibly be done anywhere.

Listen to Emily Lauren Dick as she talks about how health isn’t only physical in this episode of The Fit Mess!

About Emily Lauren Dick:

Emily Lauren Dick is a body image expert and activist who is committed to making girls feel comfortable in their own skin. Her book, Body Positive: A Guide to Loving Your Body, is the number one resource for young adult women who desire to redefine and understand true beauty. Emily believes that educating young people about body image, teaching resiliency, and normalizing real bodies is critical in combating negative thinking and improving self-esteem. 

Emily holds an Honors Bachelor of Arts Degree in Women Studies and Sociology from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario. She is also a self-taught professional photographer who has photographed hundreds of women, including all of the young women included in her Body Positive book. Emily is the Marketing Manager for her family’s pizza business and considers herself a dreamer and “wearer of many hats.”

Emily lives with her children, husband, and dog in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. 

Outline of the Episode:

[02:10] Children listen more to what you do than what you say.

[06:51] About the book Body Positive: A Guide to Loving Your Body

[08:29] The media sells the female image all while sexualizing it.

[14:13] Health is not visible!

[16:25] Your body will always change because it adapts.

[20:47] What Emily’s Ten Steps to Loving Your Body is all about

[23:59] What is thinspiration?

[29:13] Pressure to get jacked: How can we improve ourselves without changing ourselves?

[32:40] If your young kid is asking for Tiktok, that’s serious!

[35:31] Zach’s vegan approach to normalizing cholesterol levels.

Resources:

Guest Website

Emily Lauren Dick on Instagram

Body Positive: A Guide to Loving Your Body

[email protected]

 

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