If you or someone you know struggles with an eating disorder, please check out my friend and fellow member of the Confidence Community (TM) Johanna Kandel’s new book, “Life Beyond Your Eating Disorder: Reclaim Yourself, Regain Your Health, Recover for Good,” which just came out today.

Johanna struggled with her eating disorder for ten years before finally getting help. She founded the Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness in 2000 to do community outreach, education, awareness, and prevention of various eating disorders, to share the message that recovery from these disorders is possible, and make sure that those suffering from eating disorders don’t have to recover alone.

In her powerful new book, Johanna offers tools and insight for those with eating disorders so they can:

• Stop self-sabotage and sidestep triggers
• Quiet the eating-disordered voice
• Strengthen the healthy, positive voice
• Let go of all-or-nothing thinking
• Overcome fear and embrace change
• Stay motivated and keep moving forward

Complete with inspiring true stories from others who have won their personal battles with eating disorders, this book provides the help you need to break free from your eating disorder and discover how wonderful life really can be.

Congratulations to Johanna on bringing this very important book into the world!

I just read on the awesome blog Feministing about a new ad in a Gap store window that says “Put Some Pants On! Because We Can’t All Look Good in Shorts.” The photo at left was taken by journalist Stephanie Marcus, who writes on her blog:

Sigh. I find this ad more than just a little infuriating. It sends the message that that only certain types, shapes and sizes of bodies are acceptable in certain types of clothing, and worse, that unless you are part of the crowd that fits into this acceptable mold, you’d be better off covering your body up.

Well, that’s a bummer, Gap. Especially since now I won’t be able to shop at your store for shorts, pants, or anything else until you eliminate this offensive ad campaign and apologize for using body shame as a ploy to convince us to buy your clothes.

What message do YOU think this ad puts out there? Are you as offended as I am? If so, let The Gap know by writing to them here.

When I first heard about American Apparel’s new campaign, I thought it must have been a joke. I mean seriously, what kind of reputable clothing company would actually do something as offensive as start a campaign looking for the “best bottom in the world?”

Well, it’s no joke.

American Apparel has just launched a “Search for the Best Bottom in the World.” That’s right. From their website:

We’re looking for a brand new bum (the best in the world!) to be the new “face” for our always expanding intimates and briefs lines. The winners will be flown to LA,photographed, and featured online. Send in a close-up photo of your backside wearing American Apparel panties, bodysuits, or briefs for consideration and vote for your personal favorites.

Seriously?

I don’t even know where to start when it comes to pointing out just how wrong this is. In one fell swoop, American Apparel has 1) reinforced the harmful practice of objectifying women, 2) promoted the negative advertising practice of treating women as sexualized body parts as opposed to real people, 3) encouraged the photographing and emailing of racy photos to be posted online, and 4) essentially turned their website into a porn site where anyone can view scantily-clad women and vote for their favorites. And that just scratches the surface.

How in any way, shape or form did American Apparel think this ad campaign was a good idea?

I plan to let American Apparel know just what I think of their new contest and I encourage you to do the same. You can send them an snail mail or call them (American Apparel, 747 Warehouse St., Los Angeles, CA 90021 - Tel. +1 (213) 488-0226) or send them a note in their online feedback form.

I’m not alone here, right? Tell me what you think!

Do you have questions about your body that you’re too uncomfortable to talk to your friends or parents about? Have you ever wondered at what age you should go see a gynecologist and what exactly would happen during your visit? Are you aware of the various sexually transmitted diseases out there and understand how to best protect yourself from contracting one?

If so, your search for answers is over. Dr. Jennifer Ashton, an obstetrician and gynecologist, has just written The Body Scoop for Girls: A Straight-Talk Guide to a Healthy, Beautiful You, and inside you’ll find information on everything from breast development and periods to birth control and personal hygiene.

“I found that teens and tweens just didn’t have a clue about their bodies, and no one (parents, teachers, friends) was giving them the right information. I wanted to give them the inside scoop on their bodies so that they would be empowered!” says Dr. Ashton.

I’m all for that. Especially when I think about all the questions I had as a teen (and continued to have until not so long ago) that went unanswered, mostly because of my own embarassment or insecurity with my own body.

What I especially like about this book is that the info is presented in a super accessible way - as you read the book it really feels as if you’re sitting down in a comfy couch in the office of a seriously cool doctor, and she’s there just to make you realize that every concern, fear, or embarrassment you harbor about your nether regions is totally normal and okay.

To enter the book giveaway contest for a chance to win The Body Scoop for Girls, leave a comment below about whether or not you’ve ever had “the talk” with your mom or dad, why or why not, and if so, how it went. One winner will be chosen next Wednesday, February 3rd, and be notified by email.

* UPDATE* My friends over at Scarleteen, the awesome sex ed website for teens, pointed out to me that there is some info in The Body Scoop for Girls that doesn’t necessarily jive with many sex educators working with teens. Perhaps most controversial is Dr. Ashton’s suggestion that sexually active teen girls shouldn’t tell their partners they are on the pill, her reasoning being that if guys know a girl is on the pill, they will be less likely to use a condom. And since condoms are the only thing that protect someone from an STD, she feels this “white lie” is worth it. I can see her point, but I agree that advocating dishonesty in a relationship doesn’t feel right. I appreciated the perspective Dr. Karen Rayne shared on her blog:

Dr. Ashton is saying it’s okay (1) for girls to lie to their sex partners about their sexual and reproductive health, (2) that it’s okay for girls to have sex with someone that they don’t trust with their sexual and reproductive health, and (3) that the decision about whether to use a condom or not is the boy’s decision, not the girl’s.  I deeply reject all three of these points and am rather affronted that anyone would agree with her initial statement.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this issue, too!

If you’re a fan of The Hills (and yes, even this smart girl admits to indulging in her fair share of MTV-sponsored reality television), then no doubt you’ve heard about Heidi Montag’s unveiling of her “new look,” the result of ten different plastic surgery procedures she had in one day last fall.

From enhancing her breasts to a double D and having a chin reduction, to getting fat injected into her cheeks and lips while having it sucked out of her neck, waist, hips and thighs, Heidi admits to being obsessed with plastic surgery while denying she is addicted to it.

Now, I’ve never once thought of Heidi as some kind of role model for girls, but I can’t help but cringe at the message this 23-year-old is making with her very public transformation. Especially when she says things like:

My main message is that beauty is really within. I have to do things that are going to make me happy at the end of the day, and I’m living in my skin and I look in the mirror and it’s my career, and my life, and I want to take advantage of everything and be the best me in and out in every way. (from her interview on Good Morning America)

I’ll be honest…I’m not a fan of plastic surgery…at all. Why? Because as more and more people undergo the knife in an effort to manufacture a more “beautiful” them, it reinforces this idea that “pretty is better” - that bigger breasts make everything better, fuller lips will make one more kissable, and a perfect nose, chin, and eyebrows are the key to true happiness. And since something like .0001% of the population is actually born with these “desirable” features, something appears to be very wrong with this equation.

I did a little research about teens and plastic surgery and found that, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), the number of procedures performed on kids aged 13 to 19 nearly doubled to 244,124 (including about 47,000 nose jobs and 9,000 breast augmentations) from 2002 to 2006. That’s a quarter of a million teens (and realistically, many, many more by now) who felt so bad about themselves because of the way they looked that they were willing to risk their lives to make surgical “improvements.”

What are your thoughts about Heidi’s “main message?” What do you think the effects could be on teens as plastic surgery patients get younger and younger and these procedures become more and more common?

I just learned about this website from someone I’m following at Twitter, and had to share it with you! It’s the website of About-Face, an organization that aims to equip women and girls with tools to understand and resist harmful media messages that affect their self-esteem and body image. Through their site, workshops, and action groups, About-Face hopes to “imbue girls and women with the power to free themselves from the burden of body-image problems so they will be capable of fulfilling their varied and wondrous potential.”

What I love about this site is it calls out the media messages - specifically advertisements - that are super offensive when it comes to portraying women and girls in a negative and harmful light. Their Gallery of Offenders features highlights of the top ten worst ads out there. Included in their current list of top ten offenders are ads from AskMen.com, Elizabeth Arden, Carls Jr., and American Apparel. But About-Face doesn’t just point out the offensive ads and explain why they are so harmful - it provides contact information for the companies behind the ads, and encourages readers to let these advertisers know just how offended we are by their portrayal of women.

It’s not all bad news. About-Face also celebrates media that is doing it right, and brings attention to their faves through the Gallery of Winners.

It’s bad enough that already super skinny cover models and celebrities appearing in magazines are photoshopped to death to eliminate traces of any blemish or imperfection that might make them look, well, real.

But the September cover of SELF Magazine, whose tagline is “You at your best,” is stirring up a ton of controversy, specifically regarding the extent to which featured celeb Kelly Clarkson has been digitally “enhanced.” And rightly so.

What exactly is the message SELF magazine is sending to women when headlines on the cover say things like “Slim Down Your Way” and “Total Body Confidence,” yet Kelly Clarkson herself has been digitally altered to make her look much thinner? Watch the video from the actual photo shoot and you’ll see just how far away the cover is from reality.

SELF Editor-in-chief Lucy Danzinger has vigorously defended the way they altered Kelly’s image for the cover, saying:

This is art, creativity and collaboration. It’s not, as in a news photograph, journalism. It is, however, meant to inspire women to want to be their best. That is the point.

Kelly has this amazing spirit, the kind of joie de vivre that certain people possess that makes you want to stand closer to them, hoping that you can learn what they know. In this case, you get the feeling Kelly has not let fame spoil her, but also that she was just born confident, with a generosity of spirit that is all about others and rarely about herself. She is, like her music, giving and strong and confident and full of gusto. Did we alter her appearance? Only to make her look her personal best.

But in the sense that Kelly is the picture of confidence, and she truly is, then I think this photo is the truest we have ever put out there on the newsstand.

Kelly says she doesn’t care what people think of her weight. So we say: That is the role model for the rest of us.

Hmmm. How thoughtful of SELF to make Kelly, who is the first to say she doesn’t have a problem with her weight, look her “personal best” on the cover. I mean, could a magazine which is supposed to be all about being your best possibly be more hypocritical?

Look, I have no problem with covering up a pimple or something in a photograph, but to change the bone structure and clothing size of real people to make them be their “personal best” and call it “inspirational” is just not okay. All it does is perpetuate the messages that girls and woman are bombarded with every day that they’re not good enough the way they are.

Do you want to tell SELF magazine how you feel about the unhealthy messages they’re sending to girls and women everywhere with their cover? Email Lucy Danzinger here.

USA Today just ran an article called Cosmetic Surgeries: What Children Will Do to Look Normal that talks about the growing trend of teenagers getting plastic surgery to improve their appearance.

In 2008, more than 160,000 children under 18 years old had cosmetic surgery, and I’m not just talking about those who had true physical abnormalities like cleft palates or the occasional nose job. Cosmetic surgeries on teens today include everything from breast implants and liposuction on ankles and calves to highly controversial procedures like what’s known as “Asian eye” surgery to widen the appearance of eyes in people of Asian descent.

The article quotes plastic surgeon Gerald Pitman, who says, “The kids I see, their desire is almost uniformly to be normal, non-deviant. Kids don’t want to stand out in a negative way.”

Is it just me or is this growing trend of teens wanting to look “uniformly normal” make Scott Westerfield’s Uglies hit a little too close to home?

While I embrace the idea that we can all create the life and reality we want, the truth is, there is nothing “real” about plastic surgery. When People Magazine’s “Most Beautiful People” issue is full of people who became beautiful under the knife, one has to wonder where these standards of beauty are coming from in the first place?

My biggest concern with the fact that increasing numbers of teens are going down the plastic surgery route is the fact that once you make the choice to start altering your body, you can’t go back. Here’s a quote from the article from one teen who regretted her decision to have breast implants at such a young age:

Heather Locke says being a flat-chested cheerleader from Dallas was stressful at the time, so at 17, with her mother’s blessing, she had her breasts augmented — from a 34A to a 34D bra size. “Now, looking back, I realize boobs aren’t that big of a deal,” says Locke, 23, “At that point in time, I thought that is what boys found very attractive, but now I know guys could care less. I am not unhappy, but I should have waited until I was older.”

Is it true that someone with a large nose might find themselves having more self-confidence after they’ve had a nose job? Yes. But this fact points to a bigger problem of our self-esteem being rooted in physical attributes instead of the things that make us truly unique and wonderful, like our values, our passions, our talents, our visions, and our personalities.

For more on this controversial topic, read the full article here. And to read about one girl’s struggle to find beauty in herself despite her disfiguring port wine stain birthmark, read Justina Chen Headley’s fantastic novel, North of Beautiful.

This week is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, a special week aimed at preventing eating disorders and body image issues while reducing the stigma surrounding eating disorders and improving access to treatment. With the recent public scrutiny of Jessica Simpson’s curvy figure and Lindsay Lohen’s skinnier-than-ever look, this week couldn’t come at a better time to bring awareness to the very real dangers of eating disorders.

According to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), nearly 10 million females and 1 million males are fighting a life and death battle with a disorder such as anorexia or bulimia. Millions more struggle with binge eating disorder.

Here are some surprising statistics about eating disorders from NEDA:

• 42% of first through third grades want to be thinner
• 81% of 10 year olds are afraid of being fat
• Over 1/2 of teenage girls and nearly 1/3 of teen boys use unhealthy weight control behaviors such as skipping meals, fasting, smoking, vomiting, and taking laxatives
• Anorexia has the highest rate of mortality of any mental illness
• There has been a rise in incidence of anorexia in young women 15-19 in each decade since 1930

To connect with resources, get help, read stories of hope from sufferers of eating disorders, or find out more information, visit the National Eating Disorders Association online.

If you’re a budding photographer and want the opportunity to share your unique, visual perspective with the world, you need to know about The Girl Project.

Through The Girl Project, founder Kate Engelbrecht is sending thousands of disposable cameras across the country to girls ages 13-18 and asking them to document themselves and their view of the world around them. The collection of images will be edited into a cohesive body of work to be viewed in book and exhibition formats - each revealing unseen truths about teenage girls and our culture.

Here’s the scoop from The Girl Project website:

Participation in The Girl Project is FREE. All we need from you is your time and creativity. Your photographs tell the story. Shoot what and who you want. Shoot close-up or from far away. Use the film to photograph 1 or 36 subjects. Take pictures of people, things or landscapes. Take self portraits. Use the camera to express your feelings and thoughts – happy, sad, angry or indifferent. Be thoughtful or careless, formal or informal, traditional or experimental, literal or symbolic. Photography is a visual way to communicate your ideas and opinions to the world.

To participate in The Girl Project, email Kate at thegirlproject@gmail.com and include the following information:

• Name:
• E-mail:
• Age:
• Address:
• Phone:

To find out more, visit the website, The Girl Project Blog, or join the group on Facebook!