When Dara Chadwick was selected to write the Weight Loss Diary for Shape magazine, she may not have realized that she would be forced to confront the fact that her own body image issues were negatively affecting her teenage daughter.
Chadwick came to realize that any mom who is constantly criticizing her own body, not enjoying food without obsessing about the calories, and giving her daughter unsolicited weight loss advice is negatively impacting her daughter's body image. But the good news, she says, is that this can be corrected if a mother makes the effort to do this now.
She gets her point across by showing the reader her own journey and the mistakes she realized she had made. She delivers her message in a non-judgmental and humble way. Her message is solid and rings very true and right. It provides an easy to understand philosophy about addressing the critical issues of body image and weight with adolescent girls.
How to Address Body Image and Food Issues with Teen and Tweens
Chadwick's journey helped her understand how to address food and body image with her adolescent daughter in a physically and mentally healthy way. Any mother who remembers feeling ashamed of her body at some point in life, or who has commented about her daughter's weight in order to try to "save her" from the body problems she had herself, will benefit from this book.
Excellent Parenting Advice around Body Image, Weight Loss and Food
The hallmark of good parenting advice is the concept of practicing what one preaches. Chadwick makes it clear that moms need to lead by example in the areas of health, nutrition, and positive body image if any attempts to influence her daughter will be successful. There is a real opportunity here for mothers suffering from negative body image issues to finally heal those old wounds.
What Not to Do
Being a good role model does involve healing oneself. It does not mean obsessing about every calorie, fretting about eating food and dessert, and talking about weight loss. Chadwick recommends putting all weight, food and exercise issues in the context of good health. She believes that the most influence a mother can have is to love and accept her own body, to take good care of it by eating right and developing it with physical challenges and exercise.
Chadwick believes that if mothers are attempting to "save" their daughters from experiencing body image hell by making comments about what their daughters eat or how they look, they may be sending the message that their daughters are not OK as they are, thus causing them to have body image problems.
You'd Be So Pretty If is an Interesting and Engaging Read
Dara Chadwick had the benefit of working with professional nutritionists, trainers and doctors during her stint with Shape Magazine's Weight Loss Diary. In addition, she has corresponded with dozens of girls and moms through her blog. The opinions these experts share throughout the book, and the personal stories of mothers' and daughters' struggles with issues of body image and weight keep the reader very well engaged throughout the book.
Mothers and daughters will benefit because Dara Chadwick found the courage to take a personal, emotional journey and share it with the world. Bravo.
The book is, You'd Be So Pretty If...Teaching our Daughters to Love their Bodies – Even When We Don't Love our Own, by Dara Chadwick, published by Da Capo Press in 2009. ISBN: 978-07382-1258-6.
You may also like this review of another Da Capo book: Drive: Nine Ways to Motivate Your Kids to Achieve
Lisa C. DeLuca - Lisa C. DeLuca is a psychotherapist/social worker who works with families and teens. She also treats panic and anxiety disorders.
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