Final Project - The Body Positive YA movement

For this final project, my goal was to turn my commonplace blog website into a resource and place for discussion for educators and leaders where they can find materials and collaborate on a way to best present media to teens. One of the ways I open up the conversation is by creating a forum where we can discuss different ways teens are impacted by media, and how educators and parents alike can use the resources we have available to us to create a more body positive narrative.

One of the first issues we come into contact with is accessibility. If students, teachers, and parents, do not have access to new materials and educators who can teach impactfully, the resources themselves do not work. One way any person can get involved is by funding teachers' projects. Consistently, teachers are funding their own classrooms often with full class sets of materials. We can help lessen the burden that teachers face by funding projects teachers post themselves through Donor's Choose.

For example, here is a Donor's Choose for an elementary school in Muncie. This teacher has a project she is wanting funded, that will allow all of the teachers in her building to learn best practices to better serve their students.

This Orlando teacher shares projects for her books and supplies for her students to better learn about themselves and their cultures, so they're able to be happy in the skin they're in. These materials often are not provided to teachers, so together, we can make an unprecedented impact on the way students learn about themselves and their peers. Funding projects like these, especially from schools with low-income families, we can create better educators with better materials, which leads to more growth, more positivity, and better lives for students.

The next course of action for this blog was creating the forum for discussion to happen. The first forum post talks about ways that educators can implement different body positive novels into their curriculum. To start the conversation, I present users with an idea about a body positive book club created by youtuber Michelle Elman, with one of her videos linked below.

In this forum, we can discuss different ways to implement such a book club in our own schools. For example, is this an after school activity where students are prompted to read at home? Or are they paired in class to talk about important themes in the novels? Potentially, teachers could choose these books to read aloud, as verbal confirmation that they are enough from people they trust can be just as beneficial as reading the novels themselves.

On the other hand teachers can have students read popular novels that they are already eager to engage with and discuss how body image is represented in the book, whether it be good or bad. A combination of critical thinking skills along with book reading time is always a good combination. However, in order for either of these methods to be successful, students will need to know the literacy that goes along with reading books and applying themes to their personal images. Chances are, they already understand how media, books, and other influences are making them feel about themselves. Starting the conversation and giving media that enhances their positive body image is only the next step.

While the literacies involved in traditional paperback book reading are incredibly valuable, not recognizing other ways students are impacted by the media they see would be a disservice to them. The affordances that exploring other media is that it is likely that the majority of students will be positively impacted by looking at a form of media that they enjoy the most. Similarly, even students with disabilities will be able to partake in at least one type of media that they engage in regularly. Young adults are educated on particular literacies, such as watching movies and understanding music and books, but navigating them through what they are learning is essential. That is why in CPP4, I have compiled a list of resources that are translatios of the body positive conversation.

For example, the first resource I mentioned is a list of body positive books for children as their first readers all the way up until late adolescence. This way, we are constantly surrounded by material that allows us to be who we are, and our children and teens are never far from a positive read. Having books such as these in our personal classroom libraries as well as school-wide libraries creates an environment where everyone can begin to feel accepted.

Overall, the conversation regarding body image in young adult media needs to change, and it can all begin on this blog and in these forums. There are a plethora of films, shows, books, and more that help students on their way to being happier people who are not only comfortable with themselves, but also people who accept others for who they are as well. They can only be as confident as we allow them to be, and with the resources and teamwork provided in this blog, there is no limit that can be set.