Lilly was being teased at school for being ‘fat’.  She is a beautiful, kind, healthy 9 year old girl. Kids can be so cruel. Girls have such a distorted idea of the perfect body shape these days and many have very poor body image themselves.   Fortunately, Lily’s mum found physie and now Lily has found a place where she is accepted for who she is and what she does.

Her physie teacher Julie has been watching her self-confidence improve week by week and says that to be able to contribute to Lily’s self esteem growing makes her “very proud to be a small part of this wonderful sport.”  Julie received this email from Lily’s mum and said it brought tears to her eyes.

“Thanks for doing Lilly’s hair on Friday. She loves you and looks up to you so much, it is amazing. I am so proud of her because she said to me that she just wore her leotard to the comp, obviously not thinking she was fat. She was really proud after the comp. So from the depths of my heart as her mother I thank you for your encouragement. You made her feel good about herself. Thank you!!”

Having a healthy body image as a child lays the foundations for good mental and physical health throughout life.  So many teenage girls of healthy weight think they are overweight and try to change themselves to become the impossible, with resulting harm to their social, physical and emotional wellbeing.

Physie teachers focus on what’s important. They praise their students for what they can do, not for their appearance, giving them positive messages about their bodies’ abilities, rather than looks.

Research shows it’s crucial that children are engaged in interests and activities that make them feel good.  Here’s where Physie comes into its own.  Girls are praised for things like effort, improvement, learning a skill, helping others, supporting team-mates and trying hard.  At physie you are taught to be the best you can be, regardless of size and shape.

Thank you Julie for sending us Lilly’s story.  We hope it encourages more mums to bring their daughters to physie where they can enjoy a sense of acceptance and belonging and feel good about themselves. This is how we empower girls for life….