What message are we sending to young girls and women about taking care of their health?

This is a shot from the grocery store yesterday. I was trying to grab a shot of just the magazine rack to add a visual to my new ebook about diet culture (!!), but after walking away I noticed I captured something WAY more powerful. During my time studying communication at OSU, a lot of my coursework focused on how media messages inform our thoughts and behaviors. As humans, our brains are hardwired to form associations between words to help us understand a topic more deeply. It’s the reason your brain thinks “jelly” when I say peanut butter. It’s the reason you associate red and green with Christmas.

Repeated exposure strengthens our cognitive associations, which contribute to our feelings and behaviors. If our young girls are continually seeing messages about weight loss, staying thin, getting toned, and the latest diets, it forces them to become body conscious, fat-phobic, and aesthetics-driven as they grow up and mature into women.

I want impressionable, innocent girls like this one to grow up with confidence, not comparison. Captivated with purpose, not body image. Running around for fun, not for fitness. Dream driven, not diet-culture distracted.

Consider the messages you’re sending to your friends, sisters, and daughters as you talk about your body and your routines. Consider the messages you’re affirming in your own mind with the social media accounts you follow and magazines you subscribe to. What roots are you strengthening, each and every day?