Last Friday we had the pleasure of giving and receiving a health presentation. We hosted the Malden YWCA T.A.S.K. force, a group of 9 girls and their supervisor. Cassandra, a summer intern from the Office of Child Advocacy at Children’s Hospital Boston joined us, as well as Emily, our CYWH summer intern. First, we socialized over pizza and got to know each other, then we took turns presenting. Dennisse and I started off with our presentation on “Self-Esteem and the Media”. First we talked about the definition of self-esteem and how it can get damaged with negative comments from friends and other sources like the media. We showed the Malden girls a PowerPoint presentation we had made about different magazine ads that are aimed towards women. The audience had to guess what the ad was selling. The girls seemed surprised with the results. This part of the presentation showed how negative images of women can impact how we feel about ourselves. We wrapped up with a discussion about ways to increase our self-esteem. Our intern Emily had a lot of good points to contribute.

The Malden Y girls then gave us a presentation on nutrition. We had so much fun playing “Food Trivia”, “Calorie Countdown”, and “Food Pyramid Relay”. In the midst of all the fun, we also learned a great deal about calories and fast food facts. I’m glad that we got a chance to learn about their organization and about what they do. I’m also glad that we helped yet another group of young women become more aware of how the media affects our self-esteem and body image, and what we can do about it.

Be sure to check out our guide on Self-Esteem and Body Image.

-Ty