Love your body: Stacy Nadeau

National Eating Disorder Awareness (NEDA) Week! 

Learn more at http://nedawareness.org/

The NEDA Campaign is focused on raising awareness about eating disorders, the stigma surrounding them, and issues about body image. The movement is national, involving volunteers and speakers everywhere. We all have loved ones with a body complex (maybe we do ourselves). Get involved in a local campaign to change the pressures that the media, society, and ourselves, place on beauty.

Learning to love yourself : Individualizing Beauty

My school, Rhodes College, hosted one of the girls from the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty last night (remember this ad?). Stacy Nadeau(the girl all the way on the right) came to speak about her movement, Embracing Real Beauty.

The Dove Real Beauty Campaign debuted in 2004, and was the first advertising campaign aimed at depicting women of all shapes, sizes & races in order to try and change (widen) the definition of beauty perpetuated by the media. They did this in reaction to a study that showed only 2% of women found themselves beautiful. These standards of beauty women were comparing themselves to are unattainable. Dove wanted to change that, and this advertisement sparked a movement that Dove is still trying to accomplish. Stacy shares that "This campaign became about changing lives, possibly saving one". Which many women said that it did!

You may have seen Dove's video, Evolution? This video shows how a woman is prepared for an advertisement. We are not capable of this kind of work, so we should not try and compare ourselves (and others) to it!

Read more about the campaign here!

Back to Stacy. Stacy was recruited to be a model for this campaign because a talent agent admired her confidence. At the time, Stacy was a college student at DePaul University did not describe herself as confident. None the less, she was selected for a national campaign in which she would appear IN HER UNDERWEAR. Stacy appeared above times square, has been featured in Marie Claire, on the today show, Oprah, Ellen and more.

Today, Stacy speaks across campuses and tries to shatter the beauty myth that women around the world try to compare themselves to. As she said last night, "Your own best healthy, beautiful self is just that, yours". She wants to help girls and women realize that they ARE beautiful! Hearing her speak was an inspiration.

My Favorite Quotes from her Talk:

• "Beauty comes in all shapes ,colors, cultures"
• "We have the power to change things...use your power, use your education, use your voice demand a change and you've got it"
• "You have way more to offer than your pants size"
• "You cannot walk around campus air brushed"
• "What we need to change right now is our campus and our community...You have to start by being a friend, a friend to yourself...when you're feeling good about yourself you need to help your friend".
• "Fat belongs in no woman or man's conversation ever. Change the conversation, pay attention to what you're doing and please stop judging. ".
• "Just because you think the grass is greener on the other side does not give you the authority to make them hate their body...the grass is not greener on the other side, the grass is greener where you water it".

         Last night a few question came up. One girl was worried about her sister possibly having an eating disorder and wanted to know how she could reach out to her. Stacy acknowledged that she is not a doctor or counselor, but suggested speaking to any girl we are concerned about one on one. She says that speaking in the group makes the girl feel as if she is under attack and being talked about behind her back. She suggests establishing the way to talk about things such as self image, and when she is ready, she knows she can come to you.

          Another girl was concerned that the advertisement was still so focused on physical beauty, versus personality traits for example. Stacy said, "I don't think there is anything wrong about talking about physical bodies as long as it's done in a healthy way". One thing I really appreciated is that she also brought up the male stereotype of physical beauty and shared about how that was unattainable too. It is important to note that this issue affects EVERYONE, not just women. The crucial thing is that the people who are capable of changing this image is US. It is time to change "beauty"!

Invite Stacy to speak at your school! She encourages anyone to contact her. She even retweeted me :)

Stacy Nadeau

Encouraging Mentorship

Embracing Real Beauty
Nadeau@campuspeak com
@stacyLNadeau

https://www.facebook.com/EmbracingRealBeauty

REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL! Get involved in NEDA week (I'm sure your campus is having events too). Her Campus has some ways you can get involved here! 

Love you all!

           Emma