In ‘Body Happy Kids: How to Help Children and Teens Love the Skin They’re In’, Molly Forbes has taken a complex and potentially upsetting topic and made an easy to read, practical manual for parents to navigate the minefield that is bringing up children in the diet culture we live in.
Research shows us that children as young as five are saying they “need to go on a diet” and that over half of 11-16 year olds regularly worry about the way they look. Body image and diet culture can impact on every aspect of a young person’s life. As parents, it’s hugely important that we both recognize this and tackle it.
Molly Forbes is a campaigner, writer, presenter and co-host of the podcast Body Cons. In 2021, she founded The Body Happy Organisation CIC to promote positive body image for children.
Body Happy Kids covers everything I had questions about, from “What Does Positive Body Image Look Like?”, through diet culture, what it is, how to spot it and how to tackle it in your house, to raising happy eaters and making movement fun again. The book covers screens, social media, toys and clothes, as well as how to talk to your kids about bodies.
Molly Forbes has very successfully negotiated the fine line between easy read books and well-referenced books to write something that is a delight to read, both from the clarity of her words and the physical layout of a book, but is also so well researched and referenced, the references run to 17 pages. As a neurodivergent person with a science and evidence-based information background, who zones out on too heavy texts, I really appreciated how well she has done this.
As well as setting out what the problems are, the book goes into practical detail of things you can do from today with your own kids.
This book is a hugely important read if you’re in anyway involved with caring for children. It’s aimed at parents, but the practical information involved could be used by teachers, grandparents, anyone really. It’s a manifesto against diet culture, and is the best explanation OF diet culture I have seen. If you’re interested in tackling diet culture – or in helping children – this is a good book for you.
Read it! I’m off to have another kitchen disco with the kids.
