Body Confidence Campaign Comes to Walsall and Birmingham – Press Release

On 10th and 11^th March 2010, Natasha Devon of Winning Minds will be bringing the innovative Body Confidence Campaign in Association with Body Gossip to Wyrley High School, Walsall and Birmingham University.

Natasha will present a thought-provoking class covering body image, pressure from the fashion and beauty industries and peers to conform to an unfeasible and unhealthy ideal and the dangers of eating disorders, following up with question-and-answer session and a confidential helpline the students can call for private advice. She has also designed an online forum the students can visit with a variety of campaigns, petitions and groups they can become involved with which question the way society perceives beauty.

Natasha works with Mark Newey at Winning Minds, one of the UK’s leading NLP practitioners and Eating Disorder Specialist, whose workshops are endorsed by B-eat, the UK’s largest eating disorder charity. Natasha uses the basics of Mark Newey’s brilliant “Mind Map” to teach students how their minds work and how they take on false beliefs and unfounded insecurities in an effort to liberate them from the shackles of negative body image and potentially damaging eating patterns.

Natasha is an former model and singer, who suffered from a severe eating disorder for almost a decade. She is candid about her past experiences and describes the emotional and physical effects of her eating disorder, as well as the less glamorous aspects of the fashion and music industries.

The campaign aims to break the prevailing conspiracy of silence with regard to body anxiety and guide young people to a happier and healthier future, where the full spectrum of beauty is represented and celebrated.

For more information click here.

Editor’s Notes

1 in 10 people under 25 in the UK suffer from an eating disorder.

As many as 1 girl in 5 will grow up to have eating habits “which give cause for concern”.

Only 1 percent of children felt they could talk to their parents about their eating-related concerns.

A national survey of 29,000 young people aged between 11 and 24 found a third of both males and females were most concerned about their body image.

By 14, half of young women cite their figures as their number one worry.

Body dysmorphic disorder, a form of crippling distorted self-image, affects one in every 100 women in the UK.