NOW Foundation Celebrates Eighth Annual Love Your Body Day

October 19, 2005

Today the National Organization for Women Foundation celebrates our eighth annual Love Your Body Day. Since its inception in 1998, the Love Your Body campaign has served to raise awareness about women's health issues, protest harmful and offensive advertisements, and promote the importance of positive body images for women and girls. As part of the campaign, Oct. 19 is designated as this year's day of action for students, teachers and women and girls of all ages.

"More and more women and girls across the country are embracing the Love Your Body campaign every year," said NOW Foundation President Kim Gandy. "They are speaking out about the dangers of plastic surgery and silicone implants; telling the fashion, cosmetics, and diet industries that they reject the myth that women's bodies need constant renovation and enhancement. Women and girls are saying 'No' to impossible beauty standards."

Each year, the NOW Foundation holds a contest for artists of all ages (and skill levels) to design the official Love Your Body Day poster. The 2005 winner was designed by Diana Fabre and inspired by an Henri Matisse collage. The poster contest for next year is already underway, with a March 1, 2006, deadline for entries.

The Love Your Body campaign has a website where visitors can send e-cards with winning poster designs, view a gallery of bad and good ads, and take the body image survey.

The Love Your Body campaign's spokespeople include the NOW Foundation's national officers as well as Jessica Weiner, performer and author of "A Very Hungry Girl," Wendy Shanker, comedian and author of "The Fat Girl's Guide to Life," and Wendy Hilsen-Bernard, author of "A Woman's Place," psychotherapist and mind-body wellness expert.

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For more information on the campaign, visit http://loveyourbody.nowfoundation.org/
or call 202-628-8669 ext. 123.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Mai Shiozaki, 202-628-8669, ext. 116; cell 202-641-1906