Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

http://www.rewritebeautiful.org/

“Rewrite Beautiful is a revolution to change how girls see beauty in themselves from the superficial to the concrete with art for the prevention of eating disorders and to equip them to use their creative skills to positively impact their communities”.

It is a revolution to define beauty as an ACTION, which can be found in an individual’s creativity, kindness and strength.  Rewrite Beautiful encourages girls (and women) to reject a harmful obsession with their bodies and instead focus on their gifts and talents that can be used to better their communities.

Rewrite Beautiful has some great values which drives its work with girls, but most outstandingly the organization promotes (in their own words):

“ARTISTRY– We believe every girl is a valuable and priceless piece of art; beautiful and created for a purpose. Whether or not she is a straight A student who volunteers her time, or an Anorexic addicted to drugs and living at a bus stop; we believe both are equally beautiful”.

“STRENGTH– Mental and physical strength are required to accomplish any great goal. We seek to build confident, self aware girls who value their own opinions and values over what is popular. We educate girls to value their bodies and nourish themselves with healthy food and healthy relationships”.

“CREATIVITY – Each and every person has a different set of interests, skills and talents. Diversity makes beauty. We seek to establish opportunities where girls can be creative and discover their gifts”.

“KINDNESS– We believe in investing in lasting beauty. The action of kindness can not be purchased, it’s purpose is to be given away. Our programming and curriculum teaches kindness as an action to build as apart of a girls character”.

This is only a taster of Rewrite Beautiful’s work.  For lots more information, visit their site: http://www.rewritebeautiful.org/ and check out what they’re doing.  Read their blog, find out how they can help you and join the revolution to redefine beauty!

Peace!

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised (Proverbs 31:30). 

Firstly, I would like to issue a ‘health warning’ with today’s featured campaign.  Any of the material on Beauty Redefined’s website can be potentially triggering.   It has emotive and opinionated content, so approach this site with caution if you feel vulnerable.  However, this website is also rich and highly informative and can be of great encouragement to both women and men.

BEAUTY REDEFINED

http://www.beautyredefined.net/how-girls-and-women-can-take-back-beauty/

Beauty Redefined is all about rethinking our ideas of “beautiful” and healthy that we’ve likely learned from for-profit media that thrives off female insecurity.  Beauty Redefined states that the media is consistently linked to body hatred, disordered eating and an unhealthy focus on appearance.   Profit-driven media, hand in hand with the multi-billion-dollar beauty and weight loss industries, rely on us believing a lie. The lie tells us beauty comes in one form that anyone can attain with enough money, time and effort. It tells us that women who don’t fit the ideal are doomed to be undesirable and unhappy. Beauty Redefined is dedicated to taking back “beauty” for girls and women everywhere.

Beauty redefined offers some really good tips for rejecting media lies and enhancing self-esteem, for example:

• Go on a media fast
• Run from normalized pornography
• Take media into your own hands (Post links or start discussions on blogs and social networking sites to continuously spark conversation about dangerous ideals)
• Be an advocate (campaign against objectification etc.)
• Be a positive example (encourage others and don’t degrade yourself).

http://www.beautyredefined.net/how-girls-and-women-can-take-back-beauty/

So, if you feel ready, be encouraged by this website and gets some tips and awareness about your self-worth and what you can do to take back beauty for girls and women.

Peace!

Alongside the devotionals that we hope and pray will encourage you through your eating disorder recovery, we also want to use this blog as a platform to bring you news of campaigns and social movements that fight against media / corporate pressure to conform to their ideal of beauty and perfection.   We believe that the messages they send out about our bodies are lies, as we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” people of the Most High God.

So far, we have identified two suitable campaigns that we believe are worthy of support.  Here’s a reminder:

OPERATION BEAUTIFUL

http://operationbeautiful.com/

The mission of Operation Beautiful is to post anonymous notes in public places for other women to find. The point is that WE ARE ALL BEAUTIFUL. You are enough… just the way you are!

CAMPAIGN FOR BODY CONDIFENCE

http://campaignforbodyconfidence.wordpress.com/

Campaign for Body Confidence believes that the pressure to conform to impossible stereotypes is damaging our sense of well-being and leading to increasing unhappiness, anxiety, low self-esteem, depression and eating disorders in women, particularly amongst young people and children – and men.  It pledges to influence the fashion, beauty, diet, and media industries and the government by campaigning for Body Confidence. This site also has an interesting blog.

These are not the only campaigns out there and we will be promoting appropriate others in the future.  We would also love to hear from you about similar campaigns.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon!