FEELING GOOD ABOUT OURSELVES SHOULDN'T BE SO HARD

Recent national research conducted by Mission Australia has revealed that the top concern for young people in Australia during 2007 was "body image". Over one-third of all those who responded to the annual survey rated body image as their biggest worry before issues such as family conflict and coping with stress.

WOMEN'S Healthworks (WHW) continues to respond in a number of ways to this growing concern. The successful Body Esteem Program for women with eating disorders, was relaunched in December 2007 with the generous support of the WA Health Department and the Butterfly Foundation in partnership with Sportsgirl.

This summer, WHW has also piloted the innovative new "Photovoice" project, which gives women a new way to ‘voice' their concerns about the skeletal images that bombard the pages of magazines, newspapers and television and to create new images that recognise women for more than just their waist circumference.

Photovoice has involved 12 mothers and daughter teams working with professional photographers and Social Worker Lanie Pianta. The five week workshop culminated in an exhibition of work at the International Women's Day festivities on Friday March 7 and Saturday, March 8.

WHW has worked in partnership with Women's Forum Australia (WFA) to bring this project to WA as well as launching the influential ‘Faking It' report at the Get Real Forum on March 7.

International Women's Day fell on Saturday, 8 March this year and WHW provided all women, especially mothers and their daughters, with an opportunity to come together to celebrate our unique and diverse qualities as women as well as some of the influences that might caused us to pause and question how wonderful we really are.

By working together we can make a difference for each other and for our  communities by questioning information that is given to us and standing together to put a different point of  view.