Be Body Positive College Programs
“My Body Positive work in high school was centered around my own healing and development of self-love, but lacked the political engagement that I found in college. In high school I didn’t have to think about size politics and had never been oppressed blatantly by fatphobia. In college I recognized the ways people were being so violently discriminated against based on size and the interactions with race, sexuality, and gender. I’m so happy I was able to start with myself and my own healing, but college really opened my eyes to the radical, political work that needs to be done.”
— Sara Cerami, Former Be Body Positive high school & college student facilitator
The task of adapting to college life is daunting. Leaving the familiarity of their home environment and routine, many students struggle with their self-care. This challenge, coupled with the immense pressure to succeed academically, the need to create a support system, and the difficulty of transitioning to a completely new lifestyle can cause many students to develop eating problems and other symptoms of psychological distress.
A Body Positive program provides the ideal support for students on a college campus. Facilitated by peers and/or dedicated staff members, students learn to resist the social pressures they feel to conform and they develop resiliency against identity-based discrimination and systemic oppression. Facilitators act as role models, and use our curriculum to guide self-exploration, group discussion, and activism around The 5 Competencies of the Be Body Positive Model.
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A 2006 survey by the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) found that nearly 20% of college students surveyed said they have or previously had an eating disorder. 1
A 2011 study found eating disorders had increased on college campuses from 7.9 percent to 25 percent for men, and from 23.4 percent to 32.6 percent for women (White et al., 2011). 2
“It was so powerful to actually hear our students answering from the heart how this program has changed their lives and their relationships with family members, and to hear how they are empowering their younger siblings, cousins, nieces, and nephews. I knew we were doing great work, but I had no idea to what extent this reached so many people so deeply.”
— Christina Goldpaint, Health Educator, California State University, Long Beach
2 White, S., Reynolds–Malear, J. B., Cordero, E. (2011). Disordered eating and the use of unhealthy weight control methods in college students: 1995, 2002, and 2008. Eat and Weight Disorders: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention, 19:4, 323-334, doi: 10.1080/10640266.2011.584805.
