Teens - Body Image and Beyond

Facilitator Reproducible Activities for Groups and Individuals

Each chapter includes a Teen Body Image Scale

Body image affects males and females. Puberty’s physical changes and identity, popularity, and athletic pressures contribute to adolescent challenges. Food and weight are not the only issues; preoccupation with facial features, skin, hair, clothes, and height, and striving for muscular builds or hourglass figures undermine peace of mind and divert attention from other aspects of self and life.

Teens – Body Image and Beyond helps teens to accept their body types and inherited features, see differences as distinctions, and know their appearance is not their identity. This workbook addresses media messages about teen body image, online profiles, friends, sports, eating disorders, muscle madness, temptations to use steroids or diet pills, and other issues. Teens will be encouraged to value variety in shapes and sizes and to embrace uniqueness.

Young people who wish to change alterable traits will receive nutrition and fitness tips. Teens with gender identity concerns will know they are not alone and will learn how to access professional expertise. Dating is laden with teen body image issues; teens will consider whether they pursue partner-pressured perfection or are self-directed. Teens will identify the non-physical appeal and qualities they seek in partners and relationships. While the intensity of body image challenges is validated, teens will be encouraged to build character, ponder ethical dilemmas, see struggles as stepping stones, and find ways to be charitable.

Teens like to be active and interact; games, role plays, panel discussions and team activities promote movement and fun; thought-provoking questions encourage verbal and artistic expression; teens create posters, poetry, slogans and skits; they play expert advisors to each other.

Teens that prefer private self-examination are equally served with worksheets and a body image scale in each chapter. Facilitators who believe their teens need introspection rather than interaction have that option; most sessions are adaptable for individual or group activities.

The workbook is in ten chapters with two to nine sessions per chapter. Each session includes clear directions for the facilitator, including the purpose and goal of the session, essential background information on the specific subject, and interactive activities, including a body image scale, to use in a group or one-on-one setting.

The ten chapters include:

• My Profile
• My Friends
• My Genes and My Genes
• Shape, Size, and Sports
• A Different Perspective
• Body Size Diversity
• Are You What You Eat?
• Work Out or Play?
• Sexual Image
• Beyond Body

This workbook is also available in PDF eBook format, making it simple to store on your computer or mobile device and to access with a PDF viewer. The PDF format allows you to easily print copies of the activities and worksheets during therapy and counseling sessions.

Teens – Body Image & Beyond Card Deck

This deck of open-ended questions will help teens get in touch with feelings and kick-start lively discussions about teen body image. Each question corresponds to a specific page in the book.

Sample Questions:

Bias is prejudice against or favoritism toward someone or something. Share a time you were unfairly judged or fortunately favored.

What personality trait is most appealing to you and why?

Describe a time you felt placed on the chopping block or share a time you had to eat your words.