The Body Image Book for Girls: Love Yourself and Grow Up Fearless

by Charlotte Markey

It is worrying to think that most girls feel dissatisfied with their bodies, and that this can lead to serious problems including depression and eating disorders. Can some of those body image worries be eased? Body image expert and psychology professor Dr Charlotte Markey helps girls aged 9-15 to understand, accept, and appreciate their bodies. She provides all the facts on puberty, mental health, self-care, why diets are bad news, dealing with social media, and everything in-between. Girls will find answers to questions they always wanted to ask, the truth behind many body image myths, and real-life stories from girls who share their own experiences. Through this easy-to-read and beautifully illustrated guide, Dr Markey teaches girls how to nurture both mental and physical heath to improve their own body image, shows the positive impact they can have on others, and enables them to go out into the world feeling fearless.

Genres: Nonfiction, Childrens

226 pages, Paperback

Published September 10, 2020

About the author

Charlotte N. Markey, Ph.D. is a professor of psychology and member of the Psychology, Health Sciences, and Prevention Science Departments at Rutgers University at Camden.

She received her doctorate from the University of California at Riverside in health and developmental psychology, with a focus on eating behaviors and body image.

She has been conducting research on eating and body image for over 25 years.

Dr. Markey has published over 100 book chapters and journal articles in peer-reviewed journals. She has hundreds of presentations to her name at universities across the U.S. and at national and international conferences. Each year, she teaches hundreds of students at Rutgers University, including students in her Psychology of Eating course.

Dr. Markey has long been involved in community efforts to educate parents and children about eating, body image, and psychological and physical health in general.

Reviews

[Elsa J · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book so much.

[Becki · Rating 5 out of 5]

With chapter headings like ‘Love your body,’ ‘Keep food fun,’ ‘Self-care,’ and ‘Be the Change,’ this book gives some great guidance for a happy life. What amazing lessons for human beings—especially pre-teen and teenage girls!

This book really covers all the bases. In addition to graphic illustrations to show a girl what her anatomy usually looks like and what to expect during puberty for body changes, the author goes on to talk about how all these changes can make a girl feel. The book isn’t just about taking care of what you’ve got, it’s about appreciating what your body is and does inside and out. While giving some of the best options for appreciating and taking care of a girl's body, the author presents the information in a non-judgmental way. Choosing other options is not automatically wrong.

While the 13-year-old who helped me review this book admittedly skimmed over the more technical descriptions of body changes, she said her favorite part was the Q&As interspersed in all the chapters. The ‘My Story’ sections with real life experiences from real girls with their ages was also engaging. Her favorite chapters were Chapter 3: Love your body, and Chapter 9: Self-care.

Overall, this book contains invaluable information for girls ages 9 to 15 regarding how they are maturing and growing. We’d give this book 5 out of 5 stars and will keep our copy handy for a little while longer. The tone is reassuring about changes during these crazy years and offers comforting advice.

[Barbara Band · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written by Charlotte Markey, a world-leading expert in body image research, this is a fantastic book that covers a huge range of information and issues around body image and girls. It's ten chapters explore puberty and your changing body, body positivity, body image and the media, basic nutritional science, healthy eating habits, physical activity and self-care. The text is accessible and informative without being "preachy" and there is good use of sub-headings, colour and illustrations with Q&A boxes, real-life "my stories" and "find out more" website suggestions. It also has a comprehensive glossary and index.
Although the real-life stories are written by older teens and young adults, this book is aimed at middle grade students (9 - 15 years) and would be extremely useful in any school library. The incidence of eating disorders is increasing among younger children, fuelled partly by a media obsession with a perfect "body image", so providing a balanced positive message to counteract this is important.

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is full of sensible, science-based advice aimed at helping girls develop a strong sense of self and positive self-image. In a time where young girls and teenagers are bombarded with unrealistic images of beauty and celebrity endorsements, it’s more vital than ever they can learn how to filter out the negative and damaging messages they are being given.

This guide will help them nurture a positive body image and help improve their mental and physical health. With sections on puberty, nutrition and self-care (amongst others), this will be a handbook to be referred back to time and time again.

[Chris]

A good read for girls and women of all ages, one for kids and adults to read together and discuss.

Dr. Markey was a guest on the Book Cougars, Episode 124 (here's the link: https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/20...)

[Christina Soderstrom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this so much more than I did.

[Destiny Decruise · Rating 4 out of 5]

i havent started reading yet but it looks like a fun book so why not try to read it

[🌞 Charlotte 🌞]

I love this book especially because I know it helps many people build up their self-esteem.

[Rebecca Morrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an important book for young girls as they learn to have confidence and peace in their bodies and themselves.

[Cheri A Levinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must read for every girl and her parent.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book to determine whether it was appropriate (now or in the future) for my fiancée’s granddaughter and my grandnieces. Full of solid, useful information about girls’ bodies, it combats a lot of the sometimes skewed and plain wrong information they get from the internet and from friends and teaches girls to embrace themselves with confidence and fully armed with real facts. I was a little skeptical about the 9 - 14 year-old target age group, but it is meant for reading and discussing with parents and others who love and care about the healthy physical and emotional development of the girls in their lives. Also helpful to me was a discussion of this book with younger women who work with children in this age group (teacher, psychologist, social worker, and children’s librarian, and provided a lot of insight to me about earlier puberty in kids and, of course, the pervasiveness of information—good and bad—available to kids in ways that were not available to me (or my sons) when growing up.