Boarding Schools for Girls

Most women admit to being dissatisfied with their bodies. But most are also focused on the wrong things: size instead of health, or calorie reduction instead of healthy eating. Even women whose body mass index (BMI) were within a healthy range said they thought they were overweight.

"The priorities are flipped," Dr. Molly Poag, chief of psychiatry at New York's Lennox Hill Hospital, said in a May 11 article by Associated Press writer Lauran Neergaard. Female athletes, Dr. Poag told the AP writer, are much better role models than supermodels are. "There's an undervaluing of physical fitness and an overhauling of absolute weight and appearance for women in our culture."

An AP-iVilliage poll of 1,000 adult women found that half didn't like their weight, but just one-third disliked their physical condition. This evidence supports the common perception that the popular focus in our society is on appearance, rather than health -- a notion that is both backwards and potentially dangerous.

At boarding schools such as New Leaf Academy in Hendersonville, North Carolina, providing a wide range of academic support services and therapeutic opportunities are among the many efforts that are focused on building female students' self-confidence and improving self-esteem for girls.

Labels: health, self-esteem, body image

Posted By: Aspen/CRC