Gratitude & Optimism for 2022
Greetings, STRIPED Family & Friends,
From Day One, STRIPED has set our sights upstream, taking aim at targets in our society’s toxic social environment that chip away at young people’s body image and sense of self and set so many up for developing an eating disorder. Prime targets for us include the diet industry’s never-ending parade of dangerous and deceptive products and the corrosive effects of weight discrimination on health care, basic rights, and dignity, to name just a few.
I’m often asked what we are doing to help kids become more resilient to our toxic environment. It’s a fair question, but I always respond that we are not focused on changing kids. We are changing our environment so the burden isn’t on kids to be resilient to the pressures they shouldn’t have to face in the first place. How do we do that? Here are a few examples from our latest projects you’ll find featured in our most recent newsletter:
- Read about the array of social media and legal research studies we have underway to help come up with better policy approaches to protecting teen mental health (pg. 2).
- Learn about what inspired us to organize an exploratory workshop with the support of a grant from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, convening 15 leading scholars, clinicians, and community advocates from across the country to come up with novel ways to address weight stigma in public health and healthcare (pg. 2).
- Check out the impressive eating disorders prevention innovators from around the globe who we’ve had the privilege and honor to host as STRIPED fellows this year (pg. 3).
- Find out what seeds of change the talented high school students of STRIPED’s Youth Corps are sowing in state legislatures across the country (pg. 4).
I suppose that last example, the STRIPED Youth Corps, likely does have some resiliency-building effects. But after nearly two years of working with them, I have no doubt that one day in the not-so-distant future, it will be this spectacular Youth Corps cohort and others like them from their generation who will be leading us to resiliency, ready to face all that the future holds for our society and our planet.
With gratitude,
Bryn Austin
STRIPED Director
