LIFEbeat Body Positivity Project

In delivering the Body Positivity Project for Somerset Public Health, LIFEbeat worked with 313 young people across 4 schools (approximately 53% girls & 47% boys), and 7 young people as part of a Body Positivity Campaign Building Workshop (6 girls & 1 boy).

184 participants have contributed to baseline data on Body Image and Body Positivity and over 60 have participated in a survey exploring more detailed factors affecting body image (of whom 42% boys, 54% girls, 1% non-binary, 1% prefered not to say).

At the Body Positivity Campaign Workshop, participants explored the issues through discussion, art, poetry and music. Participant’s thoughts were captured during the day and used as part of this campaign video which has been produced by BlackBark Films (see above). 

The young people noticed that they felt more of a sense of freedom and less inhibited, they felt more confident about being with each other and being seen and heard by each other. They became Body Positive Champions for their schools and delivered assemblies on the subject designed by themselves to other students.

In the recent Somerset SHEU survey results, 50% of girls and 21 % of boys in secondary schools expressed that they worry about “the way they look” (2nd highest worry for girls and 4th highest for boys). This indicates that the issue is highly relevant within the county. Building resilience through engagement with young people will improve the self-esteem and confidence of young people in Somerset.

This project explored the issue of body image and broke it down in order to create a ‘culture of openness’ around the subject to enhance mental health and wellbeing by fostering body positivity and confidence. The goal was to develop an understanding that it is important and mutually supportive to talk about emotions, the experience of physical development, the impact of social media and to encourage each other in self-empowerment. The project helped young people to embrace their bodies through a lens of wellbeing: physical, emotional and sensual needs. The project also created a network of young people’s Body Positive Champions and a Body Positivity campaign that was run on a county-wide basis.