Bringing body confidence education to US schools

Dear Friend,

Today’s young people spend more than eight hours each day on their phones and computers. They compare their appearance to edited and filtered images of people they see on their social media sites.  77% of adolescents report “body image distress,” feeling dissatisfied with their own appearance. We know from the research that having a negative perception of their own bodies leads to serious mental health consequences such as eating disorders, depression, anxiety, risky sexual behavior, substance abuse, and low self-esteem.

BE REAL creates resources to help young people with their body image. We have evidence-based workshops for adults and curricula for youth that are designed to help children develop a healthy relationship to food and their bodies. 

BE REAL has had a great start to the year. Thanks to generous donations, we’ve been able to make it possible for more students, teachers, and parents to have access to our resources. We will continue to use this funding to keep these resources free so everyone can access them. 

Some of the projects we are currently working on include: 

• Be Real is set to take part in the SHAPE 2024 America National Convention, the largest assembly for health educators, happening from March 12-16, 2024, in Cleveland! Denise will be both speaking at the conference and serving as an exhibitor at the exposition. This conference is an opportunity for health teachers around the country to get to know us!
• The BE REAL Ambassador program is flourishing. We have 70 ambassadors on board, and more recruits in the pipeline. Thanks to the support of our generous sponsor, we've made the Ambassador program free for educators and non-profits in 2024! As a result, we were able to host an Ambassador training session in February with over 50 people registered! 
• Introducing Let's Eat! Our latest initiative introduces brand-new middle school and high school nutrition lessons focusing on the latest research and insights from top experts in the field.
• Denise serves as the Chairperson within the Collaborative of Eating Disorder Organizations (CEDO), a coalition comprising over 20 local and national eating disorder nonprofits. Over the past three years, she has been an integral part of CEDO's leadership team, using this platform to advocate for eating disorders awareness.
• The BodyKind team has recently released an article in the Body Image research journal, which centers on the outcomes of the pilot study conducted for the BodyKind high school body image curriculum. You can access the article through the following link: https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1htnr6BgRu9hvm

Thank you for your past support at GlobalGiving. We could use your help now more than ever to create Body Confident Schools everywhere!

Confidently yours,

Denise Hamburger