Body Empowerment Peer Health Educators

"Tell the image makers and magazine sellers and the plastic surgeons that you are not afraid. That what you fear the most is the death of imagination and originality and metaphor and passion. Then be bold and LOVE YOUR BODY. STOP FIXING IT. It was never broken."

- Eve Ensler, The Good Body

The mission of the Body Empowerment Peer Health Educators is to empower and engage the campus community in meaningful peer-to-peer interactions that assist students in making informed decisions about their health and wellbeing in order to achieve their personal and academic goals. They promote body acceptance through a focus on deconstructing the media, balanced nutrition, healthy forms of physical activity, and healthy stress management.

Main messages:

• Discover ways to listen to and love your body!
• A healthy lifestyle that consists of balanced nutrition and exercise can lead to a positive body image.
• There is an interaction between poor body esteem and cultural messages that portray a single, narrowly defined standard of beauty; beauty is culturally constructed.
• One's outward appearance does not reflect the person they are or their identity.
• Genetic predisposition plays a role in your body type; therefore your body cannot be compared to or measured by another person's body.