Leading SA Girls School Principal Speaks Out on the Impact of Social Media on Girls Body Image and Shares Tips for Parents
Principal of Loreto College Marryatville, Dr Nicole Archard, believes both educators and parents play an important role in fostering positive body image, and shares the benefits of a girl’s school environment in building resilience and self-confidence
New Australian research data alarmingly indicates young people are at 'significant' risk of poor body image after just minutes on social media, Loreto College Marryatville Principal, Dr Nicole Archard shares the importance of educators and parents working in partnership to address the negative effects of social media use amongst young girls.
Speaking to the prevalence of the issue within Australian schools, Dr Archard highlights:
“Social media has a significant impact on body image issues, particularly for adolescent girls. The societal expectation for girls to be perfect and only a certain type of beauty and body type is exacerbated through platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. This unrealistic societal construction of beauty then puts great pressure on girls who then measure themselves as well as each other through these unrealistic and most often carefully constructed and manipulated ideas of beauty.”
Within the school setting, Dr Archard advocates for the importance of curriculum-based programs and other initiatives in encouraging adolescents to speak openly about body image and engage in critical debate concerning misrepresentation on social media.
Dr Archard continues, “As educators, we play a crucial role in teaching young women to question what they see on social media and the role this medium has on body confidence and self-esteem. It’s equally important to allow girls to voice their opinions in this area. The impact of peer-on-peer influence in calling out what is a significant gender issue is both empowering for girls and highly influential for fostering positive body image.”
Dr Archard also believes the issue of social media and body image is also an issue that must be addressed both at a school and in the home, with educators and parents working collaboratively. Her top tips to parents to help encourage positive body image and social media use include:
- Restricting and/or monitoring social media use for children. Whilst most sites require users to be at least 13 years of age, it is important be aware of how girls are using these platforms and the content they are engaging with.
- Engage your daughter in an open discussion about images of women displayed on social media and point out the use of filters or image editing.
- Encourage your daughter to not just post images of herself that are also misrepresentations of beauty or only liking friends’ posts that fall into this category.
- Be mindful of the language we use with our daughters to describe beauty as well as how we comment on physical appearance. For example, ‘don’t wear that dress, it makes you look larger than you are’. These comments can contribute to how girls feel about their physical appearance, and even just the smallest comments, build up over time and have a significant and often lifelong impact on girls and women with regard to how they feel about their physical appearance.
A passionate advocate for girl’s education, Dr Archard also highlights the benefits of the single- sex setting in nurturing self-confidence, resilience, and participation.
“The girls' school environment is the best place for girls to be educated as it equips them with the knowledge and capacity to challenge gender stereotypes, develop a confident and articulate voice, develop leadership capacity in all forums, and be comfortable within themselves.”
Dr Archard’s view is supported by research recognising that girls in co-educational schools have lower self-esteem and feel more pressure to be thin than girls in single-sex schools. They are also more likely to fast, diet, and go to other extremes often associated with eating disorders.
A prime example of this is seen within the area of Physical Education. Mixed-sex school sporting activities see girls become more self-conscious, with existing gender stereotypes that boys are ‘better’ at sport reinforced. This leads to girls being discouraged from taking part and heightening concerns around body image.
“When girls are highly conscious of body image and weight, they are reluctant to wear sports uniforms or take part in PE classes and sporting activities with boys. The single-sex environment allows girls to feel more confident and show fewer inhibitions, which in turn builds body confidence, and positive self-esteem, and grants the opportunity to break through gender stereotypes,” said Dr Archard.
Loreto College Marryatville highlights these important issues of body image, self-esteem, and nutrition through a number of embedded curriculum programs and initiatives. This includes bringing in outside expertise to engage with students on topics of healthy eating, body image and social media use in a variety of different contexts to provide positive learning opportunities for students.
About Loreto College
Loreto College Marryatville is South Australia’s leading all-girls day and boarding school, catering for students from Early Learning to Year 12.
Established in 1905, a Loreto education is built on a 400-year-old tradition first inspired by the founder of Loreto schools worldwide, Mary Ward, and encapsulates her beliefs in delivering an education which inspires strong, passionate, and confident girls and young women.
In delivering this view, Loreto College Marryatville provides girls with a well-rounded education where students are presented with a broad range of opportunities and given the support and encouragement to become confident and engaged learners with the knowledge and skills to make a difference to their world.
Shannon Muscolino