In recognition of National Eating Disorder Week, Operation Beautiful founder Caitlin Boyle held an interactive seminar in the Cape Florida Ballroom of the Student Union Wednesday night.
Operation Beautiful is a campaign to end negative self-talk. Operation Beautiful's mission is to post anonymous notes in public places for other women to find.
Boyle calls the project a moment of "random inspiration."
"I was having a bad day, " Boyle said. "I was taking classes at Valencia Community College and I was in the bathroom and I was like, 'Let me do something nice for a stranger.'
Boyle pulled a piece of paper out of her bag and wrote "Smile, you are beautiful" on it. She stuck it to the mirror in the bathroom.
"I took a photo if it and put it on my personal blog," Boyle said. "Within two days, I had 50 notes in my inbox. On the third day, I launched the separate site. It was a really organic thing that just grew because people really identified with it."
Because Operation Beautiful is a featured organization for NEDA week, Boyle felt it was important to come share her message at UCF.
"I think that eating disorders is a part of Operation Beautiful, it's a segment, and it's something a lot of women use to help them in recovery," Boyle said. "A lot of therapists and psychologists say that doing something like this can really help someone in their recovery. It's a small part of gaining back their confidence and being proactive."
Boyle opened her presentation with some startling statistics, such as "50 percent of young women would rather be hit by a struck than be fat" and "10 million women are either anorexic or bulimic."
Boyle warned the audience against "fat talk" - negative self-talk that has become common among young women.
"I think everyone struggles with feeling like they're not good enough," Boyle said. "Not just women, but men, too."
Boyle showed photos of celebrities, such as Jessica Alba, Kelly Clarkson, and even Katie Couric, that had been "Photoshopped." Boyle said that 99 percent of magazine photographs are Photoshopped.
"Do you really think it's OK for little girls to see this and think it's real?" Boyle asked the crowd.
For the next part of the presentation, "personal credit cards" were handed out that said things like "List three physical things you like about yourself" or "three accomplishments I am proud of." The cards were entered in a raffle those drawn won prizes from health food companies.
Other topics up for discussion were the onslaught of vanity sizing and the body image concerns of men.
Several favors were handed out to the audience, including T-shirts stating "I [heart] my body," Post-It notes to spread Operation Beautiful's message, a gift certificate for a haircut at Aveda and a copy of Operation Beautiful's pledge for self-acceptance.
"I really enjoyed the event," senior classical humanities major Lacey Kerfoot said. "I see Photoshopped images online all the time, and it's overwhelming how much this purveys in our society ... it's not OK."
The men in the audience also were able to relate to the event.
"A lot of people have a misconception that in order to be healthy, you have to be skinny," senior pre-clinical health science major Stephen Obeng said. "Guys have their own stereotypes as well. As a guy, there are stereotypes like 'biggerexia' - wanting to be bigger. People need to learn to focus on the positive aspects of their bodies."
Operation Beautiful holds seminar to show inner joy
Published: Thursday, February 25, 2010
Updated: Thursday, February 25, 2010
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