Body College Podcast

#9 Anxiety, Reading Well for Teens - Natasha Devon MBE

Episode Summary

I chatted with the awesome Natasha Devon MBE about anxiety, body image and the power of reading. Natasha is an ambassador for the Reading Agency. On October 10th 2022 they launched Reading Well for Teens. The scheme includes a collection of books being distributed in public libraries in England and Wales aimed at supporting the mental health and wellbeing of teenagers. Anxiety is Really Strange is one of the 27 books on the list. Natasha is an eloquent and fun speaker. Her passion for supporting mental health and diversity in teens comes through very clearly. She talks about her new novel Toxic and, essentially, how we all need a bit of David Bowie.

Episode Notes

A new Reading Well for teens collection will launch in public libraries in England and Wales on World Mental Health Day 2022 (10th October 2022). The scheme will support the mental health and wellbeing of teenagers, providing information, advice and support to help teens better understand their feelings, handle difficult experiences and boost confidence.

• The list features 27 books and a range of supporting digital resources covering topics including wellbeing, anxiety, depression, body image, neurodiversity, bereavement, life experiences, sexuality and gender identity.
• The collection is targeted at teenagers (13-18) and includes a wide range of reading levels and formats to support less confident readers and encourage engagement
• The list was co-produced with a group of diverse young people as well as health professionals from organisations including Royal College of GPs and Mental Health Foundation; the book list has been curated by teenagers for teenagers so that it is authentic to issues they and their peers wish to read about
• In 2020, almost 1 in 2 young people (47%) said they didn’t feel in control of their lives and 1 in 3 (32%) that they felt ‘overwhelmed’ by feelings of panic and anxiety on a daily basis
• At the beginning of 2022, more than 400,000 children and young people were being treated or waiting to be treated for mental health problems in England – the highest number on record
• The focus of Reading Well is to provide helpful reading to support people to understand and manage their health and wellbeing. The lists are created to provide early-stage support and are not a replacement for clinical intervention
• Reading Well for teens is run by The Reading Agency, a national charity that tackles life’s big challenges through the proven power of reading. They help 1.9 million people benefit from reading every year

Bio: Natasha Devon MBE is a writer, presenter and activist. She tours schools, universities and events throughout the world, delivering talks as well as conducting research on mental health, body image, gender and equality. She campaigns both on and offline to make the world a fairer place. Natasha is founder of the Mental Health Media Charter, which scrutinises the way the media report on mental health. She works with a number of charities, is a Patron for No Panic,  as well as an Ambassador for Glitch and the Reading Agency.  

Twitter/Insta @_NatashaDevon

Check her LBC show every Saturday 7pm https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/natasha-devon/

Check her debut novel ‘Toxic’ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Toxic-Natasha-Devon/dp/1912979896

Episode Transcription

Natasha Devon on Body Image: Clip @32.29

When I first started doing this job, the conversations that I was having with young people around body image, were very much about unrealistic depictions of beauty or attractiveness in media and advertising and how we are encouraged to believe that we are flawed, to make us spend money essentially. 

Whilst that's still a theme, because the world that young people inhabit has changed so much, now it's become more about how health and beauty have somehow become intertwined.

So all those really toxic messages that we were getting from the beauty industry, now it's like this will make you stronger, this will make you healthier, this is clean eating. You have literally people whose job it is to say, if you exercise like me, or you eat exactly like me, you can be as successful and popular and wealthy and attractive as I appear to be on my social media.

I think that does an enormous amount of damage. And actually I've been consulting with experts in nutrition who say, look, the rules of looking after yourself physically aren't particularly sexy. It's just stay hydrated, everything in moderation, make sure you move, don't overthink it, sleep a bit. And yet there are whole industries dedicated to kind of over complicating this relationship we have with our bodies. 

So the message now has become, look after your body, and it will look as it is supposed to. And that will be different from your best friend, or your mom, or your dad, or your neighbour, or that guy on Instagram, because there are so many unique contributory factors that make you up. They are genetic and hormonal and psychological and all the rest of it. 

For most of us we've been taught to approach it the other way around. So we think this is a healthy weight or this is a healthy size or shape, and I'm trying to get them to think, to reframe it and think about how can I be kind to my body and then accept however it ends up.