Love Your Body Day Turns Five!

by Bonnie Rice, LYBD Project Coordinator

On Oct. 16, 2002, NOW Foundation will celebrate the fifth Love Your Body Day (LYBD) since launching the campaign as part of our Women's Health Project. Over the last four years, LYBD videos and events have captured the attention of organizations and individuals nationwide. The campaign promotes self-esteem and a healthy lifestyle and sponsors an annual day of action to speak out against advertisements and images of women that are offensive, harmful, dangerous and disrespectful. We encourage women and girls to love their bodies and keep them healthy every day of the year!

Make Your Vision Part of the Campaign

A highlight of Love Your Body Day is our annual poster contest. The NOW Foundation is looking for creative responses to the onslaught of negative images that impact women's health and self-image. The deadline for entries is May 24, 2002, and this year's winner will be unveiled at the annual NOW Conference in St. Paul, Minn., on Saturday, June 22.

Grand Prize: The top design is chosen from among all of the entries in the four categories. The winner receives category prize money, plus a trip to the NOW conference in St. Paul to see the unveiling of the 2002 poster based on their design.

Category I: $400 open competition (non student)

Category II: $400 undergraduate or grad-uate level student

Category III: $200 high school student

Category IV: $100 elementary or middle school student

All entries must include full name, address, phone number, and category. Email address is optional. Designs using computers must include a disk/cd with all relevant files, including fonts. Go to the NOW Foundation page for complete information on the creative competition.

New On The Web

Tired of advertisers peddling flesh and not product? Check out our new "Say What?" page — a place for you to sound off to advertisers about the negative, dangerous messages they send to women and girls. Submit the most offensive ads you see to the page, and see what others have submitted.

Action Kit and Videos Available

The NOW Foundation has developed a Love Your Body Day kit for activists — which includes fact sheets on smoking, alcohol and breast cancer, details on how to host a LYBD house party, and sample announcements for a rally, picket, teach-in, or other event. Individuals and organizations can order the kit at no cost.

We have also created two excellent videos that address the impact of tobacco and fashion advertising on women's health: Redefining Liberation and Hollywood Smoke and Mirrors. We are pleased to offer Redefining Liberation at no cost to anyone who hosts a house party and provide the names and addresses of five people who attend the event.

Presentation Materials

The NOW Foundation urges chapters and activists go into schools and talk about Love Your Body Day with students. A script and a Redefining Liberation video will be provided to chapters that commit to providing speakers and arranging to talk in local elementary and middle schools during October. E-mail a note about your interest to health@now.org.

What Would You Like To See?

"We want to hear from you. To expand and improve the Love Your Body Day campaign we need your suggestions and ideas," said NOW Foundation Executive Vice President Karen Johnson. "What issues would you like to see included in the kit? Did your chapter or group do something outrageous or fun last year that you would like to share? How have you reached out to girls and young women in your community? Should we expand the day into a week, a month, 365 days a year? Would you like to see special Love Your Body Day merchandise in the NOW catalog?"

Send us your feedback and ideas — the email address is health@now.org or send by U.S. mail to NOW Foundation, Love Your Body Day Project, 733 15th St. NW, 2nd Floor, Washington, D.C. 20005. For more information on the NOW Foundation and Love Your Body Day please visit the NOW Foundation page.