Young teens willing to do ‘whatever it takes’ to look good

The findings have emerged from new research conducted by the YMCA involving more than 2,000 secondary school students aged 11 to 16.

Conducted on behalf of the Be Real campaign, the findings have also highlighted a crucial role for schools in tackling body image anxiety – three quarters of young people who learned about body confidence as part of their curriculum said it made them feel more positive about themselves.

However, despite this, only 48 per cent of the young people said they had learnt about body image in the classroom.

As such, Be Real has now launched the Body Confidence Campaign Toolkit for Schools, which is available to download for all secondary schools and provides lesson plans, advice and materials to help teachers educate their pupils on body image. The toolkit also gives students tools to run their own Be Real school campaign.