Girls of Summer

Girls of Summer
Improving body image one camp day at a time.
by Catherine Steiner-Adair

PARENTGUIDE News October 2006

In spring 2005, the Foundation for Jewish Camping created and released Beyond Miriam, a resource guide for camp directors on girls’ issues of body image, eating disorders and cutting. Following its publication, the Foundation for Jewish Camping offered a series of training seminars with myself as an expert for Jewish camp professionals and/or camps’ summer mental health professionals. Aimed at educating camp directors to train camp counselors on the issues, the workshops taught participants how to identify, not “solve,” problems as well as to create opportunities to build self-esteem in young Jewish girls at summer camp. The following is adapted from the resource guide.

So why do we love camp so much? What is it about camp culture that gets inside us and is so insanely special? For each of us it’s many different things— the lifelong friendships, the counselors who amaze and inspire us, the 24/7 camp spirit that nourishes our soul. There’s one other thing that contributes to camp’s appeal, which maybe you’re familiar with too. For many of us, camp is the one place where we can leave all the body size, weight, shape and food craziness behind.

In mainstream culture, we are constantly bombarded with messages that no matter what we look like, we should do whatever we can to change our bodies to look like Calvin Klein models. During the school year, we often feel self-conscious about how we look, and it can make us consider some dangerous things at times.

Camp rocks because we can get away from the media, magazines, movies and endless “thin-is-in” messages, and actually enjoy being in our bodies just as they are. Often at camp, we don’t get into the body bashing talk that dominates the girls’ bathroom at school (you know the “I can’t believe how bad I look in these jeans” drill). In fact, camp is a place where we realize it’s possible to leave the eyeliner and hair dryers at home and stop the constant body checks. We can feel happy being who we are in the bodies that we have.

At camp, we come to accept that people come in all different sizes and shapes, and no one body shape is right or wrong. We come to understand that eating a range of foods, feeling good about ourselves and having fun are all linked. Outside of camp, we get so many magazine ads and televised fads thrown at us about calorie counting, dieting, eating good foods and avoiding bad foods. It then becomes hard to trust our body and eat when we are hungry— and stop eating when we are full. Camp is a place where we can stop obsessing about what we are eating, and eat a range of foods, because after running around outside all day, we’re hungry.

Whether at a restaurant or in the cafeteria line at school, have you ever heard anyone say: “Let’s be really good today” (i.e. Let’s not put blue cheese dressing on our salad even if we really want it) or “Let’s be really bad today” (i.e. Let’s eat dessert) when it comes to digging in? Isn’t it weird that we can buy into the idea that we are good or bad people based on what we eat?

“It really helped me to go to camp and see all these counselors in all different size bodies actually eating,” says Allison, a former camper who is now a camp counselor. Katie, another camp devotee agrees: “Yeah, all the skinny girls at my school skipped lunch all the time and it made me self-conscious about eating. I learned to eat at camp.”
Camp helps us focus on what our bodies can do, and not focus on what they look like. We cheer our bunk mates on for stuff we do— whether achieving a new feat on the ropes course or trying something new, including jumping in the freezing lake. At camp, we practice living more freely in our bodies, without looking in mirrors or checking ourselves. Camp can help us look more critically at how crazy the “real” world is, and how lousy the media and models make us feel about ourselves.

Think about all the older women at camp you admire— and the friends you love and the little girls that are tons of fun— and I doubt the reason you feel the way you do is because of how they look. Camp reminds us that who we are as people matters most, something that can be hard to remember in the world outside of camp.

Let’s create a camp culture that helps us accept and appreciate our bodies, and a culture that sees food as fuel.
1. Let’s leave the fashion magazines at home.
2. Let’s not hang supermodel pin-ups on the walls of the bunk.
3. Take down the full-length mirrors.
4. Practice body acceptance— not body put-downs. See how long we can go without talking about weight or anyone’s figure.
5. If your girlfriend says, “I feel fat,” know that it’s often girl code, a sign that she is feeling bad about something deeper. Turn off the You’re Not Fat channel, and instead ask your friend if something else is upsetting her.
6. No diet talk. Most diets fail anyway.
7. Live scale-free. Stop weighing yourself
8. Get physical— exercising, running, playing sports— for fun and health.
9. Stow away the hair dryers and cosmetics.
10. Trust our bodies and eat healthfully every day.

Catherine Steiner-Adair is a clinical psychologist, school consultant, author and teacher who has devoted her professional life to working with kids, parents, schools and camps. Dr. Steiner-Adair is an associate psychologist at McLean Hospital and clinical instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She is also the co-author of Full of Ourselves: A Wellness Program Advancing Girl Power Health and Leadership (Teachers College Press).

No Weigh!

A Declaration of Independence from a Weight-Obsessed World
Signing this declaration of independence from a weight-obsessed world may help you accept your body’s natural shape and size.

I, the undersigned, do hereby declare that from this day forward, I will choose to live my life by the following tenets. In so doing, I declare myself free and independent from the pressures and constraints of a weight-obsessed world.
•I will accept my body in its natural shape and size.
•I will celebrate all that my body can do for me each day.
•I will treat my body with respect, giving it enough rest, fueling it with a variety of foods, exercising it moderately and listening to what it needs.
•I will choose to resist our society’s pressures to judge myself and other people on physical characteristics like body weight, shape or size. I will respect people based on the qualities of their character and the impact of their accomplishments.
•I will refuse to deny my body of valuable nutrients by dieting or using weight loss products.
•I will avoid categorizing foods as either “good” or “bad.” I will not associate guilt or shame with eating certain foods. Instead, I will nourish my body with a balance of foods, listening and responding to what it needs.
•I will not use food to mask my emotional needs.
•I will not avoid participating in activities that I enjoy, such as swimming, dancing, enjoying a meal, simply because I am self-conscious about the way my body looks. I will recognize that I have the right to enjoy any activity regardless of my body shape or size.
•I will believe that my self-esteem and identity come from within!!

SIGNATURE: _____________________DATE:___________________________

The Foundation for Jewish Camping provides information about and advocacy for non-profit Jewish overnight camps, offering leadership, expertise and financial resources to camps, campers and their families across North America. For more information about the Foundation for Jewish Camping and its programs, visit www.jewishcamping.org.