'm cheryl jennings. today our show talks about body image. it's the way we perceive rselves and how we look. our families our friends, social pressure and the mass media are st some of the contributing factors. it's important to note that our by imag affects self-esteem and ultimately our mental health. last year several people from the organization about face took off most of their clothes in front of ctoria's secret in san francisco. the group feels the chain portrays a body image that's unrealistic. proteste say not everybody can be a size 1 with greatcurves. >> not everybody needs to be like that in order to be attractive, in order to be awesome in general. and we really wantedo speak out just against that whole piece of it and all the people re really like the way that they look. >> well, about face wants people to feelood about their bodies, noatter what they look like. joining us in the studio right now is jennifer rger she led the protest. she is the executive director of about face. jennifer, thank you r being

here. we spoke several y ago and i'm really happy that you're still doing this work. thank you. i'm ad everyone has seene without mt of my clothes now at this point as well. that's great. >> and you look great by the way. so about face works with girls and youngomen to help analyze media msages. so tell me how you got your start with this. >> the way i got my start is en i was in college at the iversity of michigan i essentially watched an amazing video by jean killborn called "killing us softly" that really changed the way that i thought about all of thi i had lots of friends who had ting disorders and body image problems in high schol a all the pieces just came together for me really. so i started working with about face a couple of years later a i just never have stopped. >>hat organization has the same mission that youhad. it was on a nice little parallel tra for you. yes, all-around media messages. so giving girls, especially girls the tools they need to really understand media mess annuals that affect their self-esteem and body image so that they an prevent that for

themselves and leadhealthier lives and be happier peopl >> so what are some of the ways that you've seen in your experience that the media ssages affect the way we loo t ourselves. >> well there's so my different ays. the most obvious way is a girl or woman looks at an image, you know, these victoria secret images -- >> the magazines too. >> it's magazes things on facebook thatirls post of themselves evennd they just think i need to ok like that in order for people to find me attractive andind me likeable. >> a so we were talking about how this affects your self-esteem and your mental health. so this can cause all kinds proble too. >> oh yeah. it can cause self-esteem problems for sure that run very deep, even down into issues like i'mot going to go for that job, i'm not going to go for that opportunity in my academic career because i don't feel go about the way that i look. and it can of course then affect thehysical also with dieting being very danrous, eating disordes, eating disorders are a physical illness as wellas a

mental illness. >> so now your organization has a very comprehensive approach to this. describe some of th ways that yo work with this. >> absolute. so what we found is that the main reason that girls and women -- the main way they get their body image, they find out whether they are beautil or not in our culture is tough the media, is through culture. so what we do is we are really giving them tools to critique and learn about wha they're seei in media so that they c kd of prevent it from really absorbing into themselves and causing these types of problems. >> so is it online and is there a place they can go to take classes fr exampe? >> well, what we have we do media literacy workshops and curriculums well as parent education sessions at schools in the bay area. all over the bay area. a then we also have a website that has lots of information, lots of grt information that can almost stand in for a

workshop. it's at aboutface.org. >> and wt are some of the ways that we as women and m can promote healthy body image. >> well, especially for ourselves, we certainly can think about the things that our bodies can do and think about the other great characteristics that we have that areot related to attractiveness or really to appearance. and f girls, especially but also for boys, you know parents are girls and boys really need to talk about how great it is that your body can help you run, how great it is that your brain can help you think and all these different thing as oposed to focusing on the outward appearance. >> inow you're a big advocate of yoga helping too? >> yes. yoga is an up and coming way of helping people with eating disorders and body image problems who aren't really finding th talk therapy is working great for them or in conjunction with talk therapy. so it really brings a person into he body and helps her feel

her body from the inside out and really appreciate all the things that it c do and how it feels. >> all right nnifer, thank you so much. keep up the great work. >> absolutely. thank you so much. >> and we do have to take a little bit of a break right now t stay with us because in a moment we're going to hear from a local author who took a pledge to avoid looking in a mirror for a year. and in doingso, she gained self confidence d a new outlook on herself. stay with us, we'll be right back.

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so i'm looking at the headline and thinking i couldn't do that. so youpent a long time working on this book. >> i did. >> tell me whathe motivation was. >> well as a sociology graduate student, my research focus is on body image and women'sissues. so i surprised myself that when i wasngaged to be married i kind of got caughtup in all of that bridal hoopla about loing beautiful that one day and i felt so frustrated with myself about my own body image issues that i decided to needed something big toush back on that bigedia telling me i needed to look perfect. >> first tell me about th uncomfortableness you had with your body image. >> well when i was in high school a college i had anorexia. i recored from it butart of recovery is stayin really in tune with how you're feeling. and when you're triggeredby something, you need to find a y to get back to a safer space. so for me when i was looking in the mirror trying on wedding dresses and thinking maybe i

should lose five pounds,his would look much better, i reized that losing five pounds was a d idea and i thought go ig or go home. let's try a nuts project and i'll just give up mirrors and e if that would help me focus onthings outside of my body. >> well that's pretty drastic. how did you function? how did you do your hair? >> well it took an adjustment of my lifestyle. i was very engag in fashion. in fact i worked in fashion before i went back to school and so i relyad to commit myself to shifting my attention away from that. so i did continue to wear clothes i love, i continuedo wear makeup, just les, and very sheer pructs that i cou smear on. >> without looking at yourself. >> exacy. and i alsohad to be open to allowing the people in my life to say, hey, you've got something in your teeth. >> okay absolutely. so we talked about the effects that mass media has in some ways. itcan be good it can be bad. for you how was that? >> for me it was always a mixed

bag. on the one hand as a sociologist i know that we are a species that loves to decorate ourselves. we uselothing and makeup and hair styling to commucate who we are and the group that we want to be a part of. that said, the media today has really gone above and beyond what our primal ancestors would have expected and we need to find ways to manage it an put t in perspective. >> what is some of e advice that you have for women? >> for women and young women, i tnk that if you're going to subscribe to some of those beauty magazines, subscribe to "national geographic" too. >> now you had to overcome anorexia and all of these other issues. >> mm-hmm. >> when you got done with your project, how did th change you? >> well, i feel ke i'm being sappy, but the project w a huge step for meon a personal level. i gained a lot of confidence i hadn't had inhe past just knowing tat i had tested some of the doubts i had about how my life would chge if i was less

obessed with appearance and after i challenged those thoughts, it turned out everything was fine. and so i have that memy to look back on whenever i have doubts again. >> and tn how about changing your perspecti and improving your li in other ways as opposed tohaving it focus on u? >> i think that's actually the key to healy body image. a lot of us thnk having a healthy body image is looking in the mirror and thinking i ok like a ten of ten. my experience d research shows that a better bod image being able to say maybe i'm having a bad hair day, but that's just a tiny part of who i am and there's all these other things about me that i'm excited about. >> it's really toughhen you go shopping. i've noted that clothing changes sizes even though i haven' all of sudden i'm wearing smaller sizes and i know i'm not that small. >> it's really interesting. some of my research looked at the concept called vanity sizing. while men's sizing is typically by measurement, women's sizes are a little t more arbitrary.

anour clothing manufacturers know that we're sensitive about our bodies and they're playing into it. and some of us love the idea of walking into a store and finding outthat, oh my goodness i'm suddenly a size smaller. but at the end of the day i really think we owe it to ourselves to know our bodies and appreciate them and a label is just a label it's not who we are. >> we have about 20 seconds left. what isour advice for people to go big? and go home? >> well, i think goi big and going home means when you're at home y need to be spending time with people who love you and ill use a mirror pun he. they should reflect back to you the best things about yourself, and that's the secret. >> i love that that is great advice. such a pleasure to meetyou. >> you as well. thank you for having me. ave to take anoth break. when we come back, we're going toeet aay area woman who created a community forum for asian-american womeno ♪ ♪ ♪

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complex regimens. tell your doctor if you have other liver or kidney problems or other medical conditions. and about all the medicines you take including herbal supplements. harvoni should not be taken with any medicines containing amiodarone, rifampin, or st. john's wort. it also should not be taken with any other medicine that contains sovaldi. side effects may include tiredness and headache. i am ready to put hep c behind me. i am ready to be cured. are you ready? ask yo hep c specialist if harvoni is right for you. welcome back to "beyond the headlines." we've been talking aboutody image and the way our physical appearance affects our open self confidence and the way others perceive it. studies in popular culture published in 2010, media image contribute to both positive and negative social stereotypes. racial differences in appearance and conversational style have significantly diminished. howeve the representation of minorities on primetime has not

changed over time asian-americans are a growing minority group but are only found in 2% of the studysaple. joining us right now in the studio is lisa lee the co-founder of thick dumpling skin. i love that name. it's a community forum for asian-americans to talk about experiences with body images. how did you come up with this name? >> my co-founder, lnn chen, is a very scessful food blogge one of the things tat anybody who has founded any sort of ventures before will realize that coming up with aame and getting that adress is the hardest pa so she came up with a list of names that had to do with food andhick dumpling skin when it popped up we just felt that it was the right thing. dumplings are something that's asian-american an it's also about what's on the insidehat counts. so when i read it i was like we have to go with this one, it

works. >> i'm thinking body texture, you know. but okay i love it. that's perfect. so tellme about the motive for doing all this, because obviously there was a need inside you and your friend. >> the interesting thing is that it stted with me writing an article in a magazine an asian-american publication that i was a part f. in sharing my own storyyou know, having gone through this personal journey of perfection and what th is i shared the story but did not realize at all th it would resona with so many people. and lynn, you know, was one of those people and she reached o and she told me that she herself hadating disorders forany years. >> had younown her ahead of this? >> actually i was ary big fan of hers. i was a fan o her work. so when she reached out to me i was kind of shocked for a couple of days. i w ke is this the lynn chen? and then we started talking and

really just bonded over what it's like tbe asian-american and having that pressure ofou know, hing that perfect body, whatever that is. >> well can you describe some of those struggles? >> yeah, definitely. i think for the websit for us the story that we really want to tell is that of course i think all women and a lot of men struggle with body image, regaress of race, ethnicity, but i think it's very interesting to look at it from the lens ofhe cultural standpoint as well because i think for many asian-americans, particularly the ones that have immigrant families, et etera, this idea of being too big is something that is such a huge preure. >> it's like the stereotype? >> it is a stereotype. >> what is the stair owee >> it is a stereotype. >> what is the stair oweereostereotype? >> i think the stereotype that is ot there in the mass media and is actually very

inrnalized amongst our own cultures is that asian-american women are just born naturally skinny. that we apparently have a skinny gene. we are petite and this is how we are supposed to look. and i's very damaging for pele who don't fit, you ow within that mold because they start to really question themselves about wheth or not they are really a part of this community and whether or not they are, quote unquote, asian enough. so, you know and i think self confidence, self-esteem, everything just kind of rolls from that. >> well you're a big resource, so how -- what's your advice for women and for men? >> well i ink as we see more and more of these stors, lynn and ilways come back to this idea of how do we get people to thi abt, first of all ment health, because i think image iues and eating disorders is really a manifestation of your mental

state. so how do we kind of promote wellness and you know it's not about just cepting yourself unconditionally because the are many flaws about ourselves th we uld love to change, right? so how do we do that in a constructive and positive way. so i think that's number one. and nber two, i think just educatingeople and raising awareness around how stereotypes play into the way tha we see oursels. hopefully we can give people the tools t really understa and digest and conme all of that. >> and you have a great website too. thank you souch for being here d thank you for the work you're doing. >> thank you. >> it's really important. all ght we do have to take another break but when we come back we're going to learn abo the dangers of eating disorders and how you can chang the way you think about food a about yourself.

> welcome back to "beyond the headlines." i'm cheryl jennings. toy we're talking about body image. according to the national institutof mental health one in five women struggleith an eating disorder or disordered eating. and according to the ternational journal of eating disorders, on one in ten men and women with eating disorders actuallyreceived trement. here in the studio with us right

now is rebecca cooper. she has written a boo called "diets don't wo she's also founded rebecca's house, eating disorders and treatmentprogram. and i have to say i agree diets don't work. absolutely. absolutely. >> so tell me how you came up with the idea for the book. i think that you probably had an eatingisorder yourself? >> yes. after years of recovery i actually started workingith people who had problems with at first i was more like yo-yo dieting and i rlized that the devastationhat's caused by the failed die withas having a big imct on people's self-esteem, along with setting them up to get into disordered eatg. i found out too that dieting actually changes the brain chemist and me people progress into eating disorders. >> when did you recognize this in yourself? >> in myself not until i had years of recovery, years of recovery did i start -- in fact a lot of this information is

new. we didn't even know about how the brn was involved in the eating disorder. >> so tell me a litt bit more about that. so we're talking diet nutrition and exercise affecting the brain and your body. >> yes. if you think about especially body image, i mean that's the way we look at ourself. and if we thi that we have to be something other than what we are, we star doing things like extreme exercise or dieting, and some people will progss until they're dieting and they just give up because they keep failing. >> exactly. >> or they go the other way and they keep dieting to the point of thinkingtheye going to be happy at a certain weight and they're not. because you still fee the same waynside if you haven't dealt with the reasons why you have the eating disorder in the first place. >> so you founded rebecca's house. tel me about that. >> yes. rebecca's hoe is a clinic. have three houses for eating disorders and co-occurring disorders. we have peopl from all over the

world who come to us. we have different levels of care. so our jective is to get ople at first it needs to be pretty ructured butefore they leave, we want them to ha like a temporary job or a volunteer pition or take a class at a local niversity. our goal is to help them to internalize the controls around e eating instead of us forcing or somebody else fcing or making themo something externally. >> well what ar some of those little -- givee a little free therapy here. what e some of the steps to recovery? >> well, first of all is to recognize that there i a problem. and that's the ardest. that's the ardest recognize and then, you know, get help. but getting back in touch with your real authentic true self and appetit that's how you know if you're hungry or if you're full. >> and you shouldn't just eat when you're not hungry? >> no. >> exactly. >> a lot of peop do.

a lot of people do, but some people progress to the point to where it takes over their life. some of the things that people learn to do is, fst of all, what are the triggers. i need to get through those. it could e trauma, something ike that. and also to start eating healthy so that the ain can start healing itself and the body so you cantarthinking correctly again. so healthy eating is definitely a part healthy exercise, not extreme exercise. >> it's better to do this though, with a doctor's guince, right? >> you know cheryl, it takes a team. you really need a team. that's one othe reasons we are having some god success at rebecca's house because we have on staff, you ow ristered dietitians, herapists, medical doctors, psychiatrists and we do all kinds of different therapies in groups and emdr, which is for trauma. >> what are some of the triggers for people?

>> you know some people actually have a food addiction and don't realize it. yes. and this is again, this is new research that's coming out, that tre are some foods that actually affect the rewards system in the brain much like alcohol and drugs. and the people who are predisposed genetically to this, they can be triggeed by something in their envirment or trauma or just dieting to where they go into th cycleof like they have to have it. they ha one cooe and -- >> they have to eat the whe bag? >> yes. >>e have about 20 seconds left. so how can parents help their children ge through this? >> first of all model healthy eating yourself. nd also talk about yourlf in a way thas positive. you know, when you see other people don't make remarks about them being overweig or they hould lose weight. don ask your child to be

pfect in everything. and if they say that i'm fat, go beyond that. ask them has something happened or what's -- what are you eling, what else is going on. >> all right rebecca we have so much good advice from you today ande'l find it online. thank you for being here,really appreciate it. >> thank you cheryl. >> and that is all the time we have fo today. my thanks to all of our guests. for more information about today's program, go to our website, abc7news.com/community.z/

hello? hello? not now, tom. can't really talk. i've got a family dinner tonight. (grunts) you'd understand if u had kids. my son bryce is a marine, and haylee's in law hool. we've been neighbors for 12 years. do you en know me? you know, this conversation isn't really gonna go well for me, so i'm just gonna give you a blanket "sorry," but please thank bryan for his service to our country. bryce. bryce. ah, it's nice to se you two bonding. (sighs) i wanted this to be a nice family dner. no one could set the table? we should just eat caveman style. no dishes to clean. get the shades. (grunts) ho, ho, ho, ho, ho. give me some of that. did you at least wash your hands? (british accent) oh, the queeof england wants to know if our hands arclean. shut your face. (normal voice, mouth full) you shut ur face. now it's a family dinner. captioned by closed captioning services, inc. come on, dign, prissy pants. i'm on a tight schedule. ell