Building a healthy body image starts at birth, and the children’s book Your Body Is Awesome: Body Respect for Children, written by Sigrún Daníelsdóttir and illustrated by Björk Bjarkadóttir, is a wonderful book to reinforce positive body awareness. As a psychologist, Daníelsdóttir’s focus is body image and eating issues; her purpose in writing this book is to tell children how amazing their bodies are.

Written in simple language but intended as a read-aloud book, Your Body is Awesome begins with a simple premise: “Everybody has a body.” Bodies are fun—they allow us to do all manner of things such as running, playing, jumping, and dancing. Bodies do amazing things, such as growing bigger and healing themselves. And all bodies are unique.

I love the child-like illustrations and font used in the book. Resembling elementary-school hand lettering, the typesetting sometimes ambles across a page or loops and swirls, keeping the feeling of the book light and whimsical. The drawings have the feel of coloring book illustrations, with bold black outlines and solid-color or single-pattern fill. Consistent with the message on every page—that all bodies are good bodies—the illustrations show tall bodies, short bodies, thin bodies, fat bodies, young bodies, and old bodies. “Just imagine,” it says, “if human beings were flowers. Wouldn’t it be boring if all the flowers in the world were the same?”

Daníelsdóttir and Bjarkadóttir encourage children to learn to listen to the messages their bodies send them by having children close their eyes and “travel into” their tummies to discover whether they are hungry or full. They encourage children to try breathing deeply and to pay attention to various parts of their bodies and to notice their feelings. And it tells children that the adults in their lives are supposed to listen to them when they tell them what is happening with their bodies, because “Our body knows best.”

In addition to telling children all that their bodies do for them, it tells them that they need to care for their bodies by eating nutritious food, being active, resting, and allowing time and help for healing. It tells children, “Be kind to your body and treat it with love. Your body is your friend and you will live in it all your life.” It tells children to allow others to be happy in their bodies, too.

It’s crucial to teach very young children body awareness and body positivity. In the “Message for Adults” at the end of the book, Daníelsdóttir tells parents and caregivers, “Children’s body image is part of their general self-image and therefore it is important that they grow up in an environment that helps them see their bodies in a positive way.” She continues, “children’s body image has a powerful influence on their health and well-being.” Thus, “body diversity needs to be embraced as a normal part of life and met with the same respect and inclusion we try to promote in other areas of human diversity.”

To foster children’s healthy regard for their own bodies and the bodies of others, adults are admonished to help children to be curious about their bodies and to listen and respond to the signals their bodies send them. Guided by loving, nurturing adults, children can develop a healthy attitude toward their bodies just as they are.

I encourage you to get a copy of Your Body Is Awesome for any child in your life!

Until next time,