SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Studies show that kids as young as 3 years old can have body image concerns. Author Susan Verde was an elementary school teacher who saw kids forming judgments about their bodies very early on and wanted to introduce them to a concept she calls body beautiful, so she wrote a picture book with that name. The opening line of the book is, do you know your body is beautiful? Susan Verde joins us now to talk about the answers she's heard to that question and the reception to her book. Welcome to the show.
SUSAN VERDE: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.
DETROW: Where did this idea first come from?
VERDE: Well, body image is something that I have personally struggled with for a long time. And, you know, as someone who writes children's books that - I think about supporting kids through a lot of their difficult emotions or negative self-talk. And...
DETROW: Yeah.
VERDE: ...Body image and your body is one of those areas. And I just felt like if I could get to kids a little bit earlier, maybe we could interrupt some of these concerns and thoughts that they have at such a young age.
DETROW: We're talking about young, really young kids in a lot of these examples. Is there one specific moment that you recall being surprised by the way a younger kid was talking about their body or somebody else's body?
VERDE: I actually have an example from my own kids' life. My kids were probably 6, 7, and they had friends over, and they were going to go swimming. And I heard their female friend say, oh, I'm - you know, I don't really want to be in a bathing suit because I don't know, I have bumps and lumps and whatever. And - which was already jarring - right? - at age 6,7. And then I heard my son say, well, that means your body's growing exactly as it should be.
DETROW: Oh.
VERDE: And I was like, whoa, pat myself on the back. There you go.
DETROW: Take a victory lap.
VERDE: (Laughter) But yeah, I mean, that really surprised me. So there had to have been, you know, some conversation that each one of them had picked up on.
DETROW: Sure.
VERDE: And they were sort of reflecting back.
DETROW: So it's one thing to just tell a kid, hey, you should think differently. Hey, that's not a good way to think about yourself. You know, it's another to tell a story. Tell me how you thought about the story of this book, how you put that together, what you wanted to emphasize.
VERDE: First of all, you know, when adults come in and they tell a child, you should or should not, that immediately shuts off something in the child, right?
DETROW: I have a lot of experience and can confirm...
VERDE: Yes.
DETROW: ...With my kids. It doesn't work.
VERDE: Right? It's just like, click, I don't hear you anymore. But I feel like books are such a wonderful way to share these messages without being super didactic, without it being a should or a should not, and in a way that kids can see other kids like themselves and sort of take the story from another child, right? Take the opinion or the information from someone their own age.
DETROW: Yeah. One thing I liked about the book is you spend time just kind of walking through all the things that a body does, all the functional ways. And, like, a lot of them are really kind of, when you take a step back, amazing - that your body is able to do a certain task a certain way, you know?
VERDE: I totally agree. That's why I definitely wanted to make sure there was a lot of that...
DETROW: Yeah.
VERDE: ...In the book because your body is pretty amazing, if you think about it. I mean, the things we can do - you know, grasping things or walking or sitting or twisting or all of those things - are pretty miraculous in their own right.
DETROW: I feel like even a cut healing is kind of a crazy thing when you think about it.
VERDE: Yeah. It's a bit like magic. But it's true. Your body, you know - all of a sudden, it senses something went wrong, and it brings all these pieces together to try to help heal you. I mean, what an amazing concept.
DETROW: As many topics are in the world, this topic has become politicized, and there is this interesting backlash to the basic ideas that you're talking about, of appreciating the body you have. And I'm wondering how much or how little you thought about that as you approached this book.
VERDE: Unfortunately, I agree with you that there is this backlash, but I think that, you know, we kind of have to turn that off and turn the politicization of all of this off and just get down to the child and how much we love our children and how much we want them to feel great about themselves...
DETROW: Yeah.
VERDE: ...As they move through the world.
DETROW: Can I ask you to read the last passage from the book?
VERDE: Sure. All right.
(Reading) The most beautiful thing about your body is and always will be that your body is you, and there is nothing more beautiful than that.
DETROW: Why was that such an important point to end on?
VERDE: Because I think we bring all these self-criticisms and all these things we hear, and we compare ourselves so much. And I just wanted to bring it all back to the fact that, you know, no matter what your body looks like, no matter what you can or cannot do, the most important thing is that you are you, and that's beautiful, just like flowers in nature, just like - you know, nobody is the same. Nothing is the same. You are your unique self. And that is really the most important thing to remember.
DETROW: The book "Body Beautiful" is written by Susan Verde and illustrated by Steph Littlebird. It comes out September 23. Thank you so much for talking to us.
VERDE: Thank you so much.
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DETROW: That is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED for this Saturday. I'm Scott Detrow. In one more very important piece of news, happy tenth anniversary to my wife, Laura. Thank you for joining us. We will talk to you again tomorrow. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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