101 Ways to Help Your Daughter Love Her Body - Softcover

Richardson, Brenda Lane; Rehr, Elane

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060956674 ISBN 13: 9780060956677

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2001

Synopsis

Sit up straight so your tummy doesn't hang out. Thin is always in. You look so much prettier when you smile. Guys like girls with big boobs. Now that you've got your period, you's better be careful. I'd kill to have legs like yours.

With negative messages bombarding our girls on a daily basis -- from misguided adults, from peers, from the media -- how can our daughters possibly feel good about their bodies? While you may not single-handedly be able to change society there are ways to make sure that your daughter's sense of self is strong and sustaining. In fact, this hands-on guide offers 101 ways!

In 101 Ways to Help Your Daughter Love Her Body, two mothers -- one a clinical psychologist, the other an award-winning journalist -- have teamed up to provide parents with practical ideas tailored to girls from birth through the teenage years. These initiatives inform parents and encourage them to take active roles in helping their daughters develop confidence, treat their bodies with love and respect, and make peace with their unique builds so that they can revel in a sense of femaleness and physical competence.

Psychologically astute and fun to read, this proactive guide will help define a new generation of healthy girls. There's no better time than now to help our daughters, young and growing, learn to love their bodies.

About this title

Review

With 101 Ways to Help Your Daughter Love Her Body, Brenda Lane Richardson and Elane Rehr have written the definitive book about body esteem for girls. These two mothers--one a journalist, the other a clinical psychologist--don't simply snarl about the ways society chips away at a young girl's self esteem via her body image. Instead, they offer fresh, practical strategies for parents to teach daughters to view their bodies lovingly in the face of enormous pressure. Body esteem, say the authors, "allows a girl to view her internal strengths, rather than her appearance, as a projection of her worth and to retain an image of her body as a whole rather than a package of distorted parts that must be dressed up and displayed to their best advantage." Each chapter is packed with specific suggestions about how parents can reframe a daughter's media-driven desire for a perfect body into a process of accepting her unique build. Among the topics: living in a fat-phobic culture, teaching body comfort with babies, why a mother's body esteem is critical, how dads make a difference, brilliant "Barbie" strategies, a crash course in the perils of puberty, the trap of "emotional eating," talking about pregnancy and periods, and how to keep her body from harm. The bold and wise counsel in this book should be read by every parent of a growing girl. --Barbara Mackoff

About the Author

Trained as a minister, Brenda Lane Richardson is a journalist, active public speaker, and the author of Story Power, The Language of Fertility, and Chesapeake Song. She has written a column for the Oakland Tribune, and her work has appeared in Essence, Glamour, Ms., and the New York Times Magazine.

Elane Rehr, has been a professor of psychology at Diablo Valley College since 1973, specializing in women's psychology and adolescent psychology.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0060956674
• ISBN 13: 9780060956677
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256