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.

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.

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.

This book gives parents and guardians the tools to help their kids grow up with confidence in their bodies. With eating disorder rates rising sharply since the pandemic started, resilience to body shame is more important than ever. Molly Forbes presents this essential information (including research references) with compassion and humor, including her own journey to body acceptance.

This book is a crucial read for anyone that spends time with kids!

Love this book and will definitely be recommending it to everyone I know. It’s a great read for all but especially those new to body acceptance work. It gives a thorough overview and the toolkits at the end of each chapter are gold. I love the age appropriate advice that allows the reader to take action right away. Well done!

I just finished the book called Body Happy Kids by Molly Forbes and I feel compelled to share my review with others. This is everything I hoped it would be. It is filled with data, recommendations/resources, and activities to try with your children. This book enables us and our children understand that health comes in all different body shapes and sizes. It provides support on developing media literacy and learning how to spot and reject diet culture. It introduces resources on intuitive eating. It directs you to Sabrina String's work on the racial origins of fat phobia. It is just such a beautiful book and I am so glad she wrote it.

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.

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!

Molly (author) has something unique.... she blends two complex worlds effortlessly together.Motherhood and Media Land.A woman who has lived in the ‘real world’ away from all the glossy book parties and red carpet events,She can deliver a clear powerful message via podcasts, tv shows and social platforms which is shaking an entire industry.From the first chapter you can feel her true passion for helping others, whilst maintaining her authentic charm is what makes ‘Body Happy Kids’ such an unmissable read! It’s not patronising, it’s not high and mighty.... it’s real, honest and full of lightbulb moments.An Aladdin's cave of advice that can be instantly be used in everyday life.As someone who has many nieces and nephews it’s important that I’m constantly educating myself on how to help.Generations change, kids aren’t naive anymore. Health is not as simple as eating an apple.This book breaks down all areas of modern kid including many crazy beauty and health standards they see and hear.What a pleasure to read. And re-read. And gift. And lend out!Fully recommended.

I bought this book because I worry about my children and how they view their bodies, they are at that difficult age when things are changing and weight is being gained. I am only two chapters in but I have already realised the unintentional harm I have done to my childrens self esteem by the amount of diets I have been on over the years which they have seen me cut out entire food groups because I thought it would make me thin. Guess what it didn't and now one of my children is starting the same cycle and I can not bear for them to go through the suffering I have just to end up fatter. Equally I have realised that that isn't my fault and that I am ok the way I am which importantly has made me realise I don't hate my body! After 30 years of trying to lose weight and feeling like a failiure I have realised I wasn't the problem in the first place! Please read for yourself even if you don't have children this book has such an important message.

I’m just under half way through this and I’ve had so many lightbulb moments. I am very conscious of being a great role model to my kids and I’m sad to admit that my thoughts and feelings about my body are pretty hateful which I’m going above and beyond to change. If you have children, are around children, have nieces, nephews, cousins, friends’ kids, are a teacher, kids group leader - even if you think you don’t do anything negative to affect the children in your life’s opinion of bodies you will still have your mind blown by this book. I don’t think there is anyone who won’t learn something from reading it.