    
Radiance Kids Project
Information and Support for
Parents, Teachers, Counselors,
Health Professionals,
and Kids of all ages.
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Support for
Plus-Size Teens
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General Information on
Supporting Big Kids (of all ages)
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Individuals and Groups to
Contact
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Size-Positive
Books & Resources
This is only a partial list of some of our favorite books and
resources. This list will be updated a few times a year, and your
ideas on what to include on this list are welcome.
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Tons of Fun:
Size-Positive Stories and Images for Young Children
We’ve been hearing a lot in the news lately about
the importance of early learning experiences,
including exposing young children to books and reading—and it’s
all true. A child who has been read to when young is more likely to
be a good reader herself and to be successful in school and in life.
And there is nothing cozier than sharing a favorite story: cuddling
up together and studying the pictures in a delightful children’s
book.
By Sharon Henegar
Illustrated by Doug Dworkin
From Radiance Fall 1999.
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Bringing Size
Awareness to the Classroom: The Making of Young Activists
Imagine that you could go back in time and give your younger self
just one message, something that would change your life for the
better. What would it be? Aside from the names of the Kentucky Derby
winners of the past twenty years, I know what I would choose: I'd
sit my chubby preteen self down, and I'd tell her that even though
she is fat, she is lovable, pretty, and capable. I'd tell her that
she deserves respect, and that she is okay just the way she is. I
wonder if she would believe me.
By Nancy Summer
From Radiance Winter 1996.
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Girls’ Body Image and
Health
It seems as if everyone is always talking about dieting and
weight. We look at images of thin attractive people every day on
television and in magazines, but rarely do we see any larger girls
and women shown as attractive. We get exposed to hundreds of diet
commercials each year that tell us that if we want to be pretty,
popular, and successful, we have to be thin.
By Nancy Summer
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Building Blocks for
Children’s Body Image
A child’s world is no longer a simple or carefree place to grow.
It has become filled with complex ethical and personal struggles
that some of us find difficult to grapple with as adults, let alone
as children or teens. Issues like drug abuse, violence, teen
pregnancy and the decline in educational standards are well
discussed and many solutions to these problems are being attempted.
Buried among these acknowledged pressures are those as yet unspoken
on a public basis: the dangers and destructiveness of mainstream
body image in America.
By Marius Griffin
for the Body Image Task Force>
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The Inner World of the
Fat Child - Challenge for a Child Abuse Counselor
Alissa is eight years old. She is painfully shy. She does not
converse easily. She will not make eye contact and she does not like
to be touched. She walks with her head down, afraid to look around
her, suspecting all eyes that are on her. She wears oversized
sweaters and baggy pants, and her bangs cover half her face. She
smiles infrequently. Her brother teases her incessantly about how
large she is, and how much she eats. He tells her that she smells
bad, and he calls her Petunia Pig.
By Eliana Gil, Ph.D.
From Radiance Fall 1987.
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Is It
Discrimination?
Often we see and hear things that may be size discrimination—on
television, in magazines, in school, and in our neighborhoods. Can
you tell if something is discrimination? Here are some examples and
what we think about them. What do you think?
By Nancy Summer
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Knowing About Fat Kids
If you are a thin kid, you may not know that being fat can make it
hard to make friends. In this country, "overweight" kids
sometimes have a hard time and can even be made fun of.
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Ten Top Reasons to Give Up
Dieting
#10: Diets don’t work. Even if you
lose weight, you will probably gain it all back, and you might gain
back more than you lost.
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Trust Your Tots at
the Table - And You May End Up Trusting Yourself
Nutrition expert Ellyn Satter’s philosophy of child feeding is as
simple as it is radical: "The parent is responsible for what,
when and where. The child is responsible for how much and
whether." That’s it? Yes. Does it work? Yes, insists Satter.
She suggests that following this division of responsibility can
solve most children’s eating problems—and help us understand our
own.
By Joan Price
From Radiance Winter 1991.
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When Children
Hate Their Bodies—What Parents Can Do To Help
Megan, who has always been the tallest and largest child in her
class, comes home from the fourth grade in tears because classmates
told her she was too fat to play with them. She spends the afternoon
alone with her Barbie doll, pretending that she, like Barbie, is
tiny, delicate, popular, and thin. Sarah, a slender eighth-grader,
believes she is too fat. Hoping to avoid comments about her
"thunder thighs," she refuses to wear a bathing suit on a
family beach outing. She tells her mother she hates her
"ugly" body, which she hides under layers of loose,
shapeless clothing.
By Jean Rubel, Ph.D.
Adapted from an article by Jean Rubel
From Radiance Fall 1987.
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Working with Fat Children in
the Schools
Sandy McBrayer, the 1995 national Teacher of the Year, tells of
visiting an elementary school that was proud of its ethnic diversity
and the integration achieved within the school’s social milieu.
The principal walked her to the newly built multipurpose "cafetorium"
and ceremoniously pulled open the doors to reveal children of all
colors eating, talking, and laughing together.
By Michael I. Loewy, Ph.D.
From Radiance Fall 1998.
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On Raising Children of
Substance
It is 1969, and I am at the lunch table in the cafeteria, sipping at
my half-pint of cold milk and dreading what may await me in my
Flintstones lunch box. I look around. Caroline has her usual squat
thermos brimming with saucy ravioli or spaghetti loops with baby
meatballs. That would be yummy. Of course, my favorite is right
across from me in Maria’s brown bag: peanut butter and grape jelly
on airy white bread, which is stained purple in the spots where the
jelly has seeped through.
By B. Shanewood,
an interview with author and therapist Jane R. Hirschmann
From Radiance Fall 1998.
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Raising Largely Positive
Kids
The following guide sheet was developed by
Carol Johnson, founder of Largely Positive, an organization for
people of size based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
By Carol Johnson, M.A.
From Radiance Fall 1999.
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