Body Happy Kids: How to help children and teens love the skin they’re in

Molly Forbes has taken a complex and potentially upsetting topic and made an easy to read, practical manual for parents to navigate the minefield that is bringing up children in the diet culture we live in.Body Happy Kids covers everything I had questions about, from “What Does Positive Body Image Look Like?”, through diet culture, what it is, how to spot it and how to tackle it in your house, to raising happy eaters and making movement fun again. The book covers screens, social media, toys and clothes, as well as how to talk to your kids about bodies.Molly Forbes has very successfully negotiated the fine line between easy read books and well-referenced books to write something that is a delight to read, both from the clarity of her words and the physical layout of a book, but is also so well researched and referenced, the references run to 17 pages.This book is a hugely important read if you’re in anyway involved with caring for children. It’s aimed at parents, but the practical information involved could be used by teachers, grandparents, anyone really. It’s a manifesto against diet culture, and is the best explanation OF diet culture I have seen. If you’re interested in tackling diet culture – or in helping children – this is a good book for you.

This book is long overdue. I wish it would have been around when I was a child, I'm sure my mum would have read it and maybe I would have felt happier in my skin. For everyone wondering if this is the right thing for their family, believe me when I say that this has changed our lives. We are still at the beginning of this process but we can already see the benefits on our 12 year old. He is enjoying his new found food freedom but not the way that you might think. The first few days were scary. Letting go of control is one of the scariest thing as a parent and step parent (like myself). But it was also extremely liberating and we were so surprised to see the effects of letting go. We can see him thinking about food in a different way and going for whatever his body tells him to rather than us telling him what choice to make. And believe it or not, he is making a lot of "nutritional" choices. He's feeling happier and we are starting to feel happier too. Most importantly, we have become so much more body positive while reading this book. We have banned some words from our vocabulary that make us feel bad and are amazed at what a difference small things like that can make! It's a journey and we are only just starting to become happier within ourselves but we couldn't have done it without you Molly Forbes. Thank you for writing this book. Thank you for inspiring us and our children. Thank you for contributing towards this beautiful body positivity movement. We feel seen, heard and empowered, thanks to you. Everyone, just buy this book! It could change your life.

As someone who spent most of my life hating my body and eventually developed an eating disorder, I want to do everything in my power to prevent my daughters from going down the same path. This book has been such an amazing resource! I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to help their kids develop a healthy relationship with their body.

Body Happy Kids is the book I wish my parents had read. It would've saved me years of wasted time and money trying to make my body smaller, and I'd have avoided a lot of heartache.Molly Forbes is one of the country's leading experts on body image. She's put all her expertise and knowledge into this book so that readers can easily understand the issues facing our children and young people. The book also contains wisdom from a huge range of academics and experts, adding plenty of evidence alongside a range of perspectives which gives context to the subject and really gets you thinking. Molly's also included ideas for how to help young people strengthen and improve their body image so that they go out into the world robust and resilient.I can't think of a scenario in which this book wouldn't be helpful - if you're a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, carer, teacher, or work with children and young people in any capacity, BUY THIS BOOK!

This book pairs really well with another I recently read - Aubrey Gordon’s "What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat". Body Happy Kids is written in such a lovely way. Molly Forbes shares her thoughts and tools to help support and raise resilient children and teens, encouraging them to love the skin they’re in. This book will challenge what many ‘think’ they know about body image – it did with me. This is a book that I want everyone who works with, or cares about, kids to read. It’s encouraged me to reframe my thoughts and check the language that I use.