A Sad Reality: young girls and body image

I went ice skating today. With friends from my Sunday School class and our teacher and her two daughters - one in pre-K, the other in 4th grade.

I brought my camera: purple, easy to operate, enticing to the youngest girl.

She wanted to take pictures. I let her.

At one point, she was photographing her older sister who she no doubt looks up to. Her sister said, "NO! Don't take pictures of my legs."

"Why," I asked her.

"Cause they're ugly," she said.

Completely shocked, I asked this beautiful, young girl before me, "Why do you think your legs are ugly?"

"They're fat," was all she said.

Recently she hit a growth spurt and now she is super tall and stretched out; my mom insists that she is "skinny as a beanpole."

I quickly tried to reassure her that there was not an ounce of fat on her but I could tell by the resolute self-disgust in her face that she did not believe me :(

This broke my heart and as much as I was sure it would break her mother's, I called her later to alert her to this body image issue in hopes that she could nip it in the bud.

Unfortunately, upon recounting the brief discussion, before I could finish she said, "her fat legs?"

Apparently this has been an issue for awhile and even today while driving home from the skating rink, the girl asked her mom, "What is the average weight for a 9 year old girl?"

Though this situation seems awful and perhaps abnormal, it isn't.

It is a sad reality.

"According to figures provided by the country's first residential eating disorder treatment facility, the Renfrew Center, and the Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 40% of 9-year-old girls diet regularly. According to the Harvard Eating Disorder Center in Boston, 42% of first-, second-, and third-grade girls want to be thinner. Eating disorders also have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness." This came from a great article entitled "More Young Girls Worry About Their Weight."

I remember struggling - though not dieting - when I was younger. One thing that encouraged me AND I think could encourage this young girl and many others who think their legs are "fat" is the old Thunder Thigh, etc. ads from Nike.

Check them out. Show them to the young girls - AND women - that you know.