Beauty standards are problematic. 

They are rooted in oppressive systems like misogyny, racism, and transphobia. As a result, our clothing and beauty choices are often fraught.

On the other hand, our daily decisions present a powerful opportunity to show up as ourselves. Many kids pick up on this instinctively.

In this series, writer, speaker, mother, and make-up artist Angela Morris and I talk about how we can help our kids develop empowering, joyful relationships to beauty as a form of self-expression.

Listen in to hear how we can cultivate beauty freedom in ourselves and our children.

We want a world characterized by equity, consent, sustainability, sovereignty, connection, love, and justice. We're dreaming of and trying to orient every day toward a world that is humane for everyone—our children, our communities, ourselves.

Unfortunately, the defaults have been set by White Supremacy, Misogyny, Colonialism, Capitalism, and all their iterations. Dominance is the default.

In this episode, I wrestle with my own complicity in upholding exclusion—on this very podcast—and share the way I'm thinking about my role in interrupting entrenched patterns.

We didn't set the defaults. But we CAN interrupt them as we see them and shape new defaults, in our own lives and homes.

What if "everything that's been used against you can reveal your sources of power"? (h/t Kelly Diels)

In this episode, I share a part of my personal history that has been used against me—having grown up in a chaotic and abusive environment.

The truth is that this is not my shame to carry.

It's actually deeply informative to my work.

I want justice-centered parents and caregivers to also reframe things that have been used against them—these are lenses we can use to orient ourselves toward justice.

Our values are reflected even in our most routine interactions, like feeding kids. The way we present food and talk about bodies has the potential to help our kids develop peaceful relationships to food, even if we are still developing our own self-trust.

Listen to hear us discuss:

 • what normal appetite variation looks like in kids

 • how to avoid sparking a food rebellion

 • what to say if your kid asks if they're fat

 • how conversations about food and bodies are an entry point to combatting bias

Alissa Rumsey, MS, RD, CDN, CSCS is a registered dietitian, nutrition therapist, certified intuitive eating counselor, and the author of Unapologetic Eating: Make Peace With Food and Transform Your Life. Alissa is passionate about advocating for women to reclaim the space to eat and live unapologetically. She is the founder of Alissa Rumsey Nutrition and Wellness, a weight-inclusive nutrition practice that offers virtual counseling and online programs to help people liberate themselves from dieting, cultivate a peaceful relationship to food and their bodies, and live a more authentic, connected life. Her expertise has been featured in hundreds of media outlets and she speaks regularly at events, online trainings, and conferences around the country. She calls New York City home and spends her free time exploring the city’s food scene and searching for patches of green space to sunbathe in. 

Find relevant links and shownotes at justicecentered.com/resources

How do we develop trust in ourselves when we've been taught that we can't even believe our instincts around food? Spoiler alert: diet culture and liberation are incompatible.

In this episode, Alissa shares:

 • How food rules and restriction create a cycle of undermining self-trust

 • The evolutionary reason humans get fixated on food

 • Steps you can take to retrain your brain around food

 • What to do if your kids are fixated on certain foods

 • How the benefits of changing one's relationship with food expand into other aspects of life

Alissa Rumsey, MS, RD, CDN, CSCS is a registered dietitian, nutrition therapist, certified intuitive eating counselor, and the author of Unapologetic Eating: Make Peace With Food and Transform Your Life. Alissa is passionate about advocating for women to reclaim the space to eat and live unapologetically. She is the founder of Alissa Rumsey Nutrition and Wellness, a weight-inclusive nutrition practice that offers virtual counseling and online programs to help people liberate themselves from dieting, cultivate a peaceful relationship to food and their bodies, and live a more authentic, connected life. Her expertise has been featured in hundreds of media outlets and she speaks regularly at events, online trainings, and conferences around the country. She calls New York City home and spends her free time exploring the city’s food scene and searching for patches of green space to sunbathe in. 

Find Unapologetic Eating: Make Peace With Food and Transform Your Life at your local bookstore or https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Unapologetic-Eating/

What does our relationship to food have to do with social justice? A lot, actually, even for those of us with plenty of access to resources.

Listen in to hear:

 • how diet culture connects with other hierarchical systems of oppression

 • how parents can resist passing on body mistrust at the table so kids grow up with a peaceful relationship to food

 • the problem with making "health" the new definition of goodness

—so we can build a world where each human life and body is truly valued.

Alissa Rumsey, MS, RD, CDN, CSCS is a registered dietitian, nutrition therapist, certified intuitive eating counselor, and the author of Unapologetic Eating: Make Peace With Food and Transform Your Life. Alissa is passionate about advocating for women to reclaim the space to eat and live unapologetically. She is the founder of Alissa Rumsey Nutrition and Wellness, a weight-inclusive nutrition practice that offers virtual counseling and online programs to help people liberate themselves from dieting, cultivate a peaceful relationship to food and their bodies, and live a more authentic, connected life. Her expertise has been featured in hundreds of media outlets and she speaks regularly at events, online trainings, and conferences around the country. She calls New York City home and spends her free time exploring the city’s food scene and searching for patches of green space to sunbathe in. 

Every relationship has unsolvable problems—fundamental incompatibilities based on our unique ways of being in the world. The Gottmans call these "perpetual problems." In this episode, I'm expanding this idea to our relationships with our children.

Perpetual problems are just a natural part of life, but they're complicated by restrictive cultural messages.

We can interrupt and dissolve the shame that can result from our incompatibilities with our children.

This episode will help you create humane expectations for everyone, at home and beyond.

https://justicecentered.com/

We crave strong, mutually caring connections with our kids. We know they want the same kinds of connections with us.

The cultural default is pressure to always give more time, more energy, more resources. (This is particularly true for caregivers with marginalized identities.) This pressure pits our kids' need for connection against our other responsibilities, including the need for a break.

It doesn't have to be this way. We don't have to default to expectations that harm us. We can define our own expectations instead.

This episode will help you and your child(ren) feel closer and more connected, without requiring you to increase your parenting workload. Less shame, more joy and connection.

Mentioned:
+ Down Girl: the Logic of Misogyny by Kate Manne
+ Emily Nagoski on Medium

An antidote to cultural appropriation is being filled up on your family’s own lineage and traditions. When we have all we need, we don’t have to feel compelled to take from others.

With the pandemic raging, holidays are looking a bit different this year. It’s a chance for a reset.

In this episode, Trevia shares how we can make the most of this unique time, so we can emerge from 2020 with an even more beautiful awareness of or intentionality behind our seasonal traditions.

****    

Trevia Woods is a mixed race indigenous woman with nearly two decades of experience in bodywork, education, and community building. The last two decades she has founded a body work practice that spans from fertility to beyond birth, She is a primary teacher specializing in English language acquisition while teaching in the USA, China, and Saudi Arabia. Currently, she is using her experience to help women remember their power and build powerful healing practices without culturally or spiritually appropriating. By centering community, she helps self-identifying women feel rooted, curious, and connected. She believes that our best classroom is each other.

Subscribe now to stay updated on future episodes.

Show notes and relevant links at justicecentered.com/episode/trevia

Cultural competency is a critical skill for kids growing up in a multicultural society.

Virtual learning presents families with unique opportunities to share kids’ learning experiences.

On today’s episode, Trevia and I talk about how we teach kids to appreciate, not appropriate cultures other than our own. We’ll talk about:

• what to do if we discover that our home practices may be problematic
• how to approach kids’ natural curiosity about others’ holidays
• designing deeper learning experiences that get at the core of traditions
• getting rooted in our own cultural lineages...

...so we, our kids, and cultures can thrive.

****    

Trevia Woods is a mixed race indigenous woman with nearly two decades of experience in bodywork, education, and community building. The last two decades she has founded a body work practice that spans from fertility to beyond birth, She is a primary teacher specializing in English language acquisition while teaching in the USA, China, and Saudi Arabia. Currently, she is using her experience to help women remember their power and build powerful healing practices without culturally or spiritually appropriating. By centering community, she helps self-identifying women feel rooted, curious, and connected. She believes that our best classroom is each other.

Subscribe now to stay updated on future episodes.

Show notes and relevant links at:  justicecentered.com/episode/trevia