Self-Esteem & Body Image
Theme: Believe in yourself.
To help girls recognise and value their personal strengths, take pride in their unique qualities and talents, and develop a healthy body image by appreciating the beauty in diversity.
What is self-esteem?
Self-esteem refers to how you feel about yourself, your abilities, qualities, and values as a person.
✔ When you have high self-esteem, you feel good about who you are, and you believe that you can do things well.
✔ When you have low self-esteem, you doubt yourself and feel unworthy.
Self-esteem exercise
1. What does it mean to have a high self-esteem, or to feel good about yourself? (Examples: feeling confident, accepting yourself, believing you deserve the best.)
2. What does it mean to have low self-esteem? (Examples: feeling insecure, doubting yourself, believing you are a failure, saying bad things about yourself.)
3. How does someone with high self-esteem handle risky behaviour, and how does someone with low self-esteem handle the same situation? (Examples: pressure to have sex, use drugs or alcohol.)
NB: Remind students to practise good behaviour that will make them feel proud.
"I Am Special" exercise
1) Read aloud the personal strength words below that the girls can choose to describe themselves.
2) Encourage the girls to look inside themselves and see how wonderful they are.
3) Instruct the students to choose 3, 5 words that best describe themselves. Define any key words that they do not understand.
4) Ask the students to share any 2 personal strengths, starting with: "I love myself because I'm ______."
5) Encourage the girls to share this with a friend or family member who will add a good quality that they have observed in the girl.
6) Encourage the girls to look at their personal strength words when they are feeling down to remind themselves of how special they are.
Personal strength words: Appreciative • Assertive • Athletic • Brave • Bright • Confident • Considerate • Cooperative • Courteous • Creative • Dedicated • Fair • Faithful • Forgiving • Friendly • Generous • Hard-working • Honest • Helpful • Humorous • Interested • Curious • Loving • Motivated • Open-minded • Optimistic • Organised • Patient • Persevering • Positive • Punctual • Quiet • Reliable • Respectful • Independent • Self-aware • Sensitive • Supportive • Thoughtful • Trustworthy • Understanding • Determined • Efficient • Enthusiastic • Neat • Dependable • Sincere.
Body Image
Body image refers to how you see and feel about your body, your size, shape, and how you think others see you. It can be positive or negative.
✔ Positive body image: feeling comfortable and confident in your own skin.
✔ Negative body image: feeling insecure or unhappy with your body's appearance.
Body Image Exercise, steps
1. Introduce the activity.
2. In a fun way, divide the girls into pairs. Distribute flipchart paper and markers.
3. Explain that they will draw a portrait of their partner and answer: What does your partner look like? What do you like about how she looks? What is she good at doing with her body?
4. Invite the girls to share about their partner with the entire group.
5. Wrap up with the key messages and a discussion about how it made them feel.
- Everyone is different and is special in her own way.
- Remember why you are special so you love and support yourself, especially when others try to take you down.
- Respecting each other's differences creates honest and safe friendships.
- A girl is body confident when she has a positive image of her body.
- Respect your body for what it can do, not only for what it looks like.
- What others say can hugely affect body confidence. Compliment your peers and encourage them to focus on all the things they are able to do.
- You are beautiful, just the way you are.