Body image/self esteem - Alive recap and videos

This past Friday I preached about body image/self esteem issues that most teenage girls (and women) face. I talked about the lies surrounding what "beauty" and the "ideal woman" are (including the different areas where we can be bombarded with negative images, such as children's toys, TV and movies, the music industry, cosmetic companies, and Photoshop advertising). I also talked about how girls can process those mixed messages in unhealthy ways, how girls can stop the negative cycle, how guys can help and uplift their female peers, and what the Bible has to say about real beauty. Needless to say it's a topic I care deeply about and I talked for longer than I meant to!

If you would like a copy of my notes and PowerPoint, please let me know. Otherwise, here are some great video resources I found and used as I put together this message. I highly recommend them all and hope you enjoy them too.


This one shows the transformation of an already beautiful model, including hair, makeup and Photoshop, highlighting how the "beauty" we see in ads is very man-made and unnatural:

This one is also a Dove video - it's about women who describe their looks to an artist who draws them unseen. The results (compared to what they really look like) is incredible and shows how we see ourselves as much less beautiful than how others see us:

This one is the video I showed at youth, highlighting the way Photoshop can be used to change real bodies into unhealthy, skinny, and fake images - even if the models are already skinny!

This one I WISH we had time for! Jennifer Lawrence speaks up during an interview, highlighting what changes we need to make so girls stop feeling shamed about their bodies. If you Google her, she's spoken up quite a bit and there are other videos and quotes you can find:

And finally, I found this gem (probably uninteresting to most guys!) produced by Soul Pancake, a website organization run by Rainn Wilson, the guy who played Dwight in The Office. They have started a new campaign called "That's What She Said," and in this video women talk about the first time they were made to feel "not good enough." The poem at the end is amazing!!!

I could keep posting but I will leave it at that for today! I think it would be cool to do a mother/daughter workshop about beauty in the future... perhaps in May? I would love to talk about this some more!!

Cheers to all you gorgeous ladies out there (and I mean no make up and sweat pants beauty because your hearts matter more!),
Amanda