1. True You Workshop
Sample Introduction: Hello my name is Stacie Lawrence and I am a 4-H teen member here in Madison County. I am eighteen and a senior at Madison Christian Academy. Today I am here to talk to you about an issue that I think it really hurting our world, especially kids and teens. But before I tell you what that issue is I have an activity I want you to do.

2. Ice Breaker
Do this activity BEFORE you tell them why you are there and what the workshop is about. This will give you their unbiased answers. Give one paper to each participant tell them that they have two minutes to write FIVE things that they think make a person beautiful. Collect all the papers and save them to review and compare with what the world says is beautiful.

3. Introduction Activity
Do this activity BEFORE you tell them why you are there and what the workshop is about. This will give you their unbiased answers. Give one paper to each participant tell them that they have two minutes to write FIVE things that they think make a person beautiful. Collect all the papers and save them to review and compare with what the world says is beautiful.

4. Workshop Rules 1.) Respect the Workshop 2.) Respect Others
Go over these three simple rules with the participants:
Respect the Workshop.
This is sensitive and serious topic so let’s treat it that way.
Respect Others.
Listen to others when they are talking. Respect everyone’s thoughts and opinions, even if they are different from your own. If something personal and private is shared, keep it that way.
Respect Yourself.
Don’t be afraid to speak up and share your thoughts. Everyone is welcome to talk and answer questions, but nobody has to.
3.) Respect Yourself

5. Program Introduction
Use the Program Introduction as a guide. Do NOT read it, but select a few points to highlight and tell participants about.
So many children and teens suffer from eating disorders, drug abuse, and depression because they are unhappy with the way they look. With so many negative influences in the media, our schools, and the rest of the world, how can these people be okay with who they are? Everything around them says, “You aren’t good enough, pretty enough, popular enough, or smart enough.” But those things aren’t true and those lies are what we are striving to tear down.
True beauty isn’t what the world says is a “perfect body”. Good self esteem does not come from looking or acting like everyone else wants you to. True beauty is being happy with who you are, what you have, and where you are going. All of which, YOU decide - not your best friend, the kids in your school, the celebrity posters on your wall, or the media. You can decide to rise up and destroy the lies that everyone says will make you “better”. You have the power to decide that you are beautiful, you have worth, and you are going places.
As the 4-H State Teen Council, we recognized this is an issue that affects everyone. No matter where you are from, what your gender is, or how old you are, you have somehow been affected by these negative pressures in society. The goal of this program is to help children and teens to see that they have worth and beauty because they are uniquely them. Every person makes this world a little better and a little more beautiful because of their differences. That is what we want every child to know. ­We hope you find the information and recourses in this program useful in your community and that you will use it to join us in helping put an end to these lies from our society and media.
Another Sample:
The reason I am here today, is because I think the self-esteem of kids and teens is declining because of influences like the media, celebrities, magazines, movies, and even your friends and those around you at school. People are telling you that you have to look a certain way, act a certain way, and be good at certain things to be a person who is of worth. Today, we are going to learn that those things aren’t true. I am going to show you what everyone else says you should be and then we will talk about what you say you should be. So before I tell you more about this topic, we will discuss some rules for our workshop today.

6. Opening Questions
Ask these questions rhetorically or have the participants close their eyes and answer by raising their hand.
Sample Questions:
Have you ever looked at a picture of a celebrity and thought, “I wish I looked like that”?
Have you ever felt unhappy with the way you look because of what someone at school said about you?
Have you ever felt like you weren’t good enough, pretty enough, attractive enough, or smart enough when comparing yourself to someone else?
Have you ever felt bad about your talents and abilities or intelligence after being around someone else who you consider to be “better” than you?
Have you ever felt bad about your appearance after looking at pictures of yourself or looking in the mirror?
Have you ever felt like you didn’t measure up in your looks or abilities after watching a certain movie or seeing a certain celebrity’s picture?
Have you ever looked in the mirror and said, “My hair isn’t the right style, I’m too fat, I’m too skinny, I don’t like my smile, I’m not muscular enough, my feet are too big, I don’t like wearing my glasses or contacts”, or anything else bad about yourself?
After asking a few questions, tell the participants that if they answered any of those questions with a ‘yes’ to raise their hand one more time. IF you have ALL participants raising their hands, ask participants to keep their hands up and open their eyes. This shows that all are affected by the issue of self image. Tell the students that you hope to change how they think about themselves and those topics with this workshop.

7. Videos Sample introduction for videos:
Now that you all know what we are trying to accomplish, let’s look at some examples of how the media distorts what we call beautiful. I am going to show you two videos. I think you will be surprised by what you see.
After videos ask some of these questions from the video questions section of the program:
How did that video make you feel?
Do you think this is an issue in our world?
How does this issue affect you and other people your age?
Were you surprised at what happened in the video?
Do think this video was positive? Why or why not?
Where do you see models and other people like these?

8. The pressure is all around us…
Sample introduction to “The Pressure is all around us”:
Not only does the media say you need to look a certain way, but it also tells you how to act and what to be. So now let’s look at some pictures and discuss those pressures that we feel to be something we are not. We are going to flip through these next slides quickly and then discuss them all at the end.

9. The pressure to be beautiful

10. The pressure to be attractive

11. The pressure to be musically talented

12. The pressure to be athletic

13. The pressure to be successful

14. The pressure to be popular

15. The pressure to be smart

16. The pressure to be wealthy

17. The pressure to have name brands

18. The pressure to have the “perfect” body

19. Questions About Pressures
Use these questions to guide a discussion about the pressures they face:
Do you feel these pressures as a kid/teen?
How do these pictures make you feel?
Is it realistic for us to expect to be all of these things?
How should we handle these pressures?
Do you have to be all of these things to have worth, beauty, or success?
Using INTRODUCTION ACTIVITY from earlier in the program, contrast what the participants said is beautiful with what the world says in beautiful. Be sure to pull out any negative or sarcastic comments. Ask this:
If the world’s view of beauty is different from your own perception of beauty, which one should you try to be?

20. Is it wrong to want those things?
Success
Talent
Beauty
Attractiveness
Popularity
Ask the question:
Is it wrong to want any of these things?
Explain that is not wrong to be pretty, physically fit, talented, etc. BUT it can be wrong when becoming that thing is your only identidy.
Athletic abilities
Intelligence
Healthy body
Musical abilities
Wealth

21. Even toys feel the pressure…
Pull out your sample toys if you have them. Ask for a show of hands of who has ever played with an action figure or Barbie doll.

22. Even toys feel the pressure
Use this example:
You all recognize these action figures. What are some things they do or are known for? Are these things we should strive to be? Is it possible for us to be like the superheroes? Let’s talk about their physical appearence. Batman, for example, if he were a real, life-sized person, would have a 30.3 inch waist and a 26.8 bicep. That means his bicep would be less than four inches smaller than his waist. Is this a realistic expectation for us to have for ourselves?

23. Even toys feel the pressure
Use this example:
Now let’s talk about Barbie. What is Barbie known for? She has everything she wants, has countless occupations ranging from veterinarian, to racecar driver, to astronaut, to doctor. Barbie has multiple houses, sports cars, and thousands of accessories, articles of clothing, and shoes. Are these realistic expectations for us? Now let’s talk about the way Babrbie looks. Keep in mind that the average woman is 5’4” and 145 pounds. If Barbie were a real, life-sized person, she would look like this: She would be 6’0” and 101 pounds. Her hips would be 33 inches, her waist 19 inches, and her bust 36 inches. Barbie would be a very unproportionate person. Someone made a model of what Barbie would look like if she were real and here is what she would look like. Is that really beautiful?

24. Toy processing questions
Use some of these questions to wrap up the toy discussion:
Should we try to look like action figures or dolls? Why or why not?
Are these toys showing us how real people are?
Can we live up to these expectations?

25. Real magazine covers…

26. Use this as a guide:
We are going to look at each of these magazine covers and I want you to tell me what you notice about each magazine in relation to our self-esteem.
Ask some of these questions:
What are these magazines trying to do?
Do we need these magazines to be “better”?
Should we listen to these magazines? Why or why not?

27. But are these people even real?
Sample script:
Now that we understand that the media is trying to tell us what to be and how to be “better”, I am going to show you that these “better” people they are showing us may not even be real. All of these photos have been photo shopped. Each slide shows the before and after. With each picture, I want you to tell me what has been changed.

34. Before and After Questions
Use some of these questions:
What changes were made to the people’s bodies?
What do you think about these pictures?
Do you think these people really look like that?
Why are these pictures altered?
What did they do to these pictures to make the people look differently?
Did the changes make the person more beautiful?
Were these people beautiful before the changes?
Are these altered images a positive or negative influence on kids and teens? Why?
Do you have to look like these people to be beautiful or attractive?
Do these pictures change the way you will view celebrities, models, and other pictures in the media?
Before I showed you this, did you know these changes existed?
What pressures do you feel from the media?

35. It is even affecting Children
Sample Script:
Not only is this issue of self-esteem and the media affecting adults and teens, but it is also spreading to children. Younger and younger children are being affected by this issue. (Use some statistics from the statistics section of the program.)
How many of you have seen the show “Toddlers and Tiaras”? I’m going to show you two pictures from that show.

36. Sample script:
This is a before and after photo of one of the contestants. Was she not pretty enough or good enough before? What are people teaching their children when they change their appearance so drastically like this? Is this what children should strive to be?

37. Sample script:
Here is a picture showing what the little girls on that show go through to be made “prettier”. What do you all think about this?

38. How does this affect our self-esteem?
Sample script:
How does the media, the photo shopped pictures, and TV shows like toddlers and tiaras affect peoples’ self-esteem?
We have discussed all the things the world says we need to be. We may be some of those things, but most of those, we aren’t. So how can we deal with those pressures, if we know we can’t be all of those things? The answer is to build our self-esteem. Can somebody tell me what self-esteem is? Self-esteem is “a realistic respect for yourself”. That means that you know what you’re good at, what you like about yourself, and what others like about you and those things build you up and make you feel good and of worth.

39. Self-esteem Activity
Choose one activity from the activities section of the program. Complete in full.

40. Take Home Activity
Complete the take home activity from the activity section of the program.

41. Promise cards
We are almost finished with the program, but before we go I have one more thing to give you.
During wrap up and processing, pass out one Promise Card to each participant. They are to write a promise to themselves regarding how they will continue to raise their self-esteem, how they will raise someone else’s self-esteem, what they will do differently about how they view themselves or anything else they learned from the workshop. The promise should be as specific as possible. After writing the promise, they should write how they will keep their promise. If they choose to, they can write the name of someone they will ask to support them in keeping their promise. The promises are confidential; they do not have to share with anyone unless they want to.
Some sample promises to give participants ideas:
“I will do a reality check when I read magazines.”
“I will make eye contact with myself in the mirror.”
“I will stop comparing myself to other people.”
“I will stop calling ______ skinny/fat.”
“I will hold my head up high when I walk into school.”
“I will think carefully before commenting on other people’s looks.”
After everyone writes their promises give them these ideas:
Share your promise with a friend or someone you trust so they can help you keep it. Ask them to make a promise too and you can help them keep theirs.
Put your promise card somewhere where you will see it often. (i.e. your mirror, bedroom door, bulletin board, etc.)
Read your promise each week and give it some thought. Ask yourself how well you are doing at keeping your promise.
Finally, share a promise you wrote down with all of the participants. Then ask if anyone wants to share their promise. Remember, they are confidential if the participants so choose.

42. Wrap up and Processing is a vital part of any project or learning
Wrap up and Processing is a vital part of any project or learning. This is the time to let participants share their thoughts and feelings, ask thought provoking questions, and leave an impression in the minds of those who have just went through this workshop.
Ask some of these questions:
Do you view beauty differently now than before this project?
What about this workshop impacted you the most?
What will you do differently in regards to your self-esteem and the self-esteem of your friends?
How can you continue to raise your self-esteem or your friends self-esteem?
What thoughts do you have about this topic or workshop?
How do you feel after participating in this workshop?
If someone says something mean about you how will you handle it now?
If you feel pressured to look or act a certain way by the media or your peers, what will you do?
Now that you know more about this issue, what can you do to help make a difference in someone else’s life?
What surprised you most about all of this information?
Next time you look at a magazine, will you feel differently?
Sample script:
We are almost finished, but before we end this workshop, I want everyone to close their eyes one more time. I’m going to read a few quotes to close out the program. As I read, I want you to think about what you have learned today in the workshop, what promise you wrote down on your promise card, and how you are going to view yourself as a beautiful and special person.
Read some of these quotes:
We are each gifted in a unique and important way. It is our privilege and our adventure to discover our own special light. -Mary Dunbar
To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself. -Thich Nhat Hanh
By being yourself, you put something wonderful in the world that was not there before. -Edwin Elliot
I was once afraid of people saying, “Who does she think she is?” Now I have the courage to stand and say, “This is who I am.”
Learn to be what you are, and learn to live with all that you are not.
To wish you were someone else is to waste the person you are.
You must love yourself before you love another. By accepting yourself and fully being what you are, your simple presence can make others happy.
Why compare yourself with others? No one in the entire world can do a better job of being you than you.
To establish true self-esteem we must concentrate on our successes and forget about the failures and the negatives in our lives. -Denis Waitley
Instead of thinking about what you're missing, try thinking about what you have that everyone else is missing.
Wrap Up and Processing

43. Thank you! Sample script:
Thank you all for participating in the True You workshop. You all have done a wonderful job in participating in this program and I hope you have learned something that will help you and others around you with this serious issue of self-esteem. Thank you.