EMBRACE YOUR BODY

A call for children to love their bodies, no matter what.

Australian author Brumfitt is the founder of the Body Image Movement and the creator of the documentary Embrace, which examines women’s struggles with body image. A children’s song came out of that project, co-written and performed with children’s musicians Pevan and Sarah. This picture book uses the song’s lyrics to deliver a message of body positivity to young readers with the hope that internalizing that message will prevent them from getting caught up in the sort of self-loathing Brumfitt examined in her documentary. While primarily targeting girls, colorful illustrations depict racially diverse children of different genders, and there is also an effort to include depictions of children with visible disabilities. Despite such efforts toward inclusivity, the lines “I’m grateful for my eyes, they see the world around me,” and “I’m grateful for my arms, to hug my family” suggest universal sightedness and that everyone has two arms. Perhaps even more notable is the fact that few of the depicted bodies are fat, which risks inadvertently undermining the book’s core message. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9.8-by-19.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 23.1% of actual size.)

Though its heart is in the right place, it’s not as inclusive as it wants to be.