Social Media Influence for Body Positivity Parenting
By Brit Guerin, LCMHCA
Social media is not only filled with diet culture ads, it’s also a highlight reel of bodies who might have been edited or manipulated in a way to make them look smaller.
Moving towards body positivity can be really tough, especially while living in a society that consistently promotes being thin.
One specific roadblock to body positivity is social media. Social media is not only filled with diet culture ads, it’s also a highlight reel of bodies who might have been edited or manipulated in a way to make them look smaller. These photos often neglect the realness of bodies- in all shapes, sizes, and unedited lines, bumps, and angles. When we see these edited images, we might begin to think, “what’s wrong with my body?”
Curating a social media account where you get to see body positive and fat positive messaging, as well as diverse bodies is a great tool to move towards body positivity, or body neutrality, which is recognizing our body as it is, while also deriving our worth through ways unrelated to our appearance.
Try following the below accounts for education around body positive parenting, intuitive eating, Health at Every Size, and more:
- Body Can Books
- Encouraging Dietitian
- Honest Mom Nutrition
- Full Bloom Project
- The Nutrition Tea
- Virginia Sole-Smith
- Sunny Side Up Nutrition
- The Curvy Dietitian
- Kinder Nutrition
- Mia O’Malley
In addition to curating a social media feed with more positive messaging, you can also seek out Health at Every Size providers (i.e. therapists, dietitians, personal trainers) to support you in compassionate ways to take care of your body. For more information on how to celebrate your body through movement, head over to Current Wellness for their online and in-person fitness, yoga, and dance classes.
Brit Guerin (she/her) has combined experience in both fitness and mental health. She is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, ACE certified Health Coach, as well as an ACSM Exercise Physiologist. She is using her holistic approach to health by creating a wellness center in downtown Raleigh called Current Wellness. Using Intuitive Eating and a Health at Every Size approach, she works with clients specifically who want to heal their relationship with food and befriend their body.
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