Cambridge University Press has published possibly the world's first body image book for older boys age 12+, and I've been sent a copy to review. We are becoming very used to the idea that teenage girls struggle with their body image, but in our media obsessed world, boys do too. In fact around 1/4 of young people with eating disorders are male. Being You looks at how the male body and mental image changes, and restores the confidence which the modern world can very quickly erase.
The authors of Being You are Dr Charlotte Markey, a pioneer on body image research and author of bestselling The Body Image Book for Girls: Love Yourself and Grow Up Fearless (2020), and Daniel Hart, a psychologist and father of boys. I am a mother of 5 boys myself.
Being You: Body Image Book For Boys is bright, bold and has illustrations throughout by Douglas N. Zacher. Text is broken into chunks, and you can dip in and out, it's not intended as a 'sit down and read through' book. The language is very accessible, and as you might imagine, very blunt at times, covering topics such as masturbation, sexuality, eating disorders, 'bulking up', plastic surgery, depression, alcohol and substance abuse.
At the back is a huge glossary of terms used, and frankly that alone is a very useful tool for helping young people have the language to explain themselves and their worries.
