Gemma asked Jennifer Weiner:

Hello Jennifer I live in a little town on Outer Cape Cod that you may be familiar with! I have been a big fan of yours for many years and have followed your positive body image campaign this summer. I have two daughters, one of whom is entering in to 3rd grade. I know you have a daughter so what do you teach her so she has good body image? Ps. I hope your new children's book made it in to our school library!

Jennifer Weiner It's rough. I have a daughter a little bit older than yours and I feel like, even though I try very hard to give her only positive messages about her body, she and her classmates seem to absorb anti-fatness on a cellular level. I think the most important thing I do is model an active lifestyle for my daughters -- they see me doing yoga and spinning and barre class and hiking. I try not to do a lot of judgment around my own body, or around (we talk about 'growing foods' or 'power foods' instead of saying things like "Oh, that's just junk" or "I can't believe I ate the whole thing!") I love People Magazine, but when the "Half Their Size" issue shows up, it goes right into the recycling bin. I don't want my girls getting the message that you're only valuable if you're managing to look a certain way or wear a certain size.
But I can't edit the entire world, or control what they see in movies or on TV. I wish there were better things to show them -- programs where there were bigger girls and women who were just allowed to characters, with love lives and conflicts, whose storylines did not revolve around weight loss. I seek those shows out and support them where I find them, and I try to move the ball forward, however incrementally, with my own work.

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