Seventeen Magazine's New "Body Peace" Project

By Emily Mathis

Fast Tube by Casper
Seventeen magazine just launched a new project called Body Peace. Basically you go online and sign a pledge promising that you will strive to come to peace with yourself. Some of the things that are included in the pledge are:

• Remember that the sun will still rise tomorrow even if I had one too many slices of pizza or an extra scoop of ice cream tonight.
• Never blame my body for the bad day I’m having.
• Remind myself that what you see isn’t always what you get on TV and in ads — it takes a lot of airbrushing, dieting, money, and work to look like that.
• Accept that beauty isn’t just about my looks. It’s my awesome personality and my energy that creates a whole, unique package.

The project has a lot of celebrity help with celebs like Hilary Duff, Whitney Port, and Katy Perry just to name of few. The celebs are featured in videos talking about their “body breakthroughs” and how they started to accept themselves.

Seventeen’s website has lots of tools to go with the pledge including confidence tips, a blog, and a body image quiz.

The project is a great idea to get young women to feel better about themselves and their bodies. The only thing that I find ironic is that Seventeen magazine is just like any other fashion magazine out there in that they contribute to the never ending images young women receive that make them feel like they need to fit a certain model of beauty. Is it possible that the pledge is just another way for a magazine to say, “Hey, love yourself in spite of the images we show you?” Why don’t they change their content and diversify the idea of beauty in addition to advocating for self-love?

So while I applaud Seventeen’s initiative, I think they should look at their own beauty content before they tell young women it’s as simple as taking a pledge.