The Body Confidence Book: Respect, accept and empower yourself

by Phillippa Diedrichs, Naomi Wilkinson (Illustrator)

In this groundbreaking book for teens, research psychologist Professor Phillippa Diedrichs empowers us to respect our bodies and disrupt the harmful societal pressures we experience every day.
 
By age 15, 60% of us lack body confidence. It’s now seen as normal to grow up feeling unhappy with our bodies. But it doesn’t have to be this way. From filtered faces and dangerous body expectations on social media, to the pressures put on us by friends and family, our bodies have been through enough. The time is now to rally against these outdated ideals and create communities that celebrate the diversity of our bodies.
 
Through science and storytelling, Professor Diedrichs breaks down key topics such as toxic social media content, the value of diverse role models, health and body image and expressing yourself through your looks. Providing you with the information, positivity, and encouragement to accept and respect yourself, this book will give you the power to challenge appearance stereotypes and feel at home in your body.
 
The Body Confidence Book is not only empowering and inspiring, it is practical. At the end of every chapter, there are simple tasks to help you put into practice the topics covered, including body appreciation mirror exercises and curating your social media feed.
 
Illustrated in a bold and inclusive style by Naomi Wilkinson, this is the book you need to help you be body confident and make the world around you more accepting of everyone, regardless of who they are or how they look. Because every body is beautiful and every body deserves to be respected.

Genres: Nonfiction, Health

186 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 4, 2024

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those with teenagers in the house (and those preteens that just can’t wait to grow up) this book is an excellent resource!

This book focuses on the pressures that one may feel when trying to build their self confidence. How society plays a role in body confidence, how social media can give us a skewed idea of body norms, and how being a healthy person will look different for each individual.

James packed with information, I recommend taking this topics of this one slowly and individually. Especially for your preteens, they really need a trusted adult with them to navigate all of this!

We are diving straight into the pre-teen world with my daughter so I am so thankful books like this one exist.

[Ms. Yingling · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this brightly illustrated nonfiction book, Dr. Diedrichs outlines techniques for living a happy and healthy life free of societal expectations to adhere to unrealistic norms. Many topics are covered, including body activism. There is a glossary of terms at the end of the book, and well as resources. There resources include not only books, but websites such as one that has academic photo galleries of different private parts so that young readers who fear they are "different" can see a wide array of what is considered "normal". This would make a great gift or a purchase for a public library and embraces the current zeitgeist surrounding body positivity.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-intentioned book on some very important topics— body confidence, body positivity, bodily respect, social media’s pros and cons.
But I question whether the delivery will resonate with the intended audience. The layout is a combination of pages of densely written, very small text, and pages that are text boxes or bright illustrations of diverse groups of people.
Some of the recommendations come across as glib or superficial.
That being said, the back-matter is very thorough. This book could be a starting point for teens and tweens to dig deeper.

[Celia Saldaño · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick, fun, and educational. This is a very helpful tool for teenagers, but a great reminder for not-so-teenagers hahah.
I really liked the illustrations, the quotes, and the little advice. I took me just a couple hours to read and take some notes.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mi sarebbe piaciuto di più se la versione italiana non fosse stata tradotta ed editata con i piedi. Per il resto mooolto carino, una lettura super valida per ragazzi delle medie e dei primi anni delle superiori.

[JL Salty]

11/25

I found this one to be preachy, a little yell-y - I think it’s the page layout and the bold text.
And a little to doctor-y.

I know that’s all vague, but … I don’t think this one will get read in our library.