Program Helps Girls Combat Body Hate, Beauty Myths
Posted
Deb McAuliffe Sprong-
NORTH MANCHESTER – “I’m so worthless.”
“I feel fat today.”
Tweens and young teens can feel pressured by culture’s unrealistic expectations of beauty.
The Real Beauty Real Girls program that begins Sunday is designed to help girls learn to handle these pressures.
Girls “face a barrage of often negative appearance-based messages” from social media, magazines, and even friends and family, according to RBRG.
Girls can even become desperate trying to measure up to what isn’t even real, says Sarah Ifeanyi, leader of the upcoming series at Victory Christian Fellowship Church in North Manchester.
The world’s standards are always changing, Ifeanyi says, but there’s one standard that doesn’t. “That’s the Word of God and what it says about you,” she said.
Ifeanyi uses the example of sunsets: All are beautiful but none are alike.
“God created each of these girls, and He made them beautiful,” she says. “It doesn’t matter if they don’t look like the model in a magazine, He made them.”
Sessions in Real Beauty Real Girls will include:
• Effective ways to deal with the wounds of negative words.
• How to challenge popular beauty myths.
• Breaking free from the trap of body hate.
Ifeanyi says sessions will also include weekly challenges, such as making a note of every ad that says “you’re not enough” or writing down every hurtful thing that someone has said about your appearance.
RBRG isn’t saying that girls shouldnt care what they look like. “You can do hair and makeup — there’s nothing wrong with that,” says Ifeanyi, “but don’t let it define you. Don’t base your self-worth on it.”
Real Beauty Real Girls is open to all girls ages 10 to 15. For more information, call the church at 260-982-8357.
