Mark your calendars Sept. 23-27 for Weight Stigma Awareness Week!

Imagine a world where people are supported in living happy, healthy lives, free of judgment about the size of their bodies…this is the mission of BEDA’s Weight Stigma Awareness Week. You can help bring that vision to life! Late September marks the 3^rd Annual Weight Stigma Awareness Week, (September 23-27), hosted by the Binge Eating Disorder Association (BEDA) and supported by our good friends at BingeBehavior.com! You may recall that earlier this year, we participated in Binge Eating Disorder Awareness Week with these two great organizations. We’re happy to support and spread the word on their latest endeavor. What is weight stigma? Weight Stigma, also known as weightism, weight bias, and weight-based discrimination, is judgment or stereotyping based on one’s weight, shape and/or size. Weight stigma fuels behaviors and actions by individuals and organizations that include bullying, hate-speech, and exclusions that limit the ability of a person to gain employment, healthcare, and education. You can learn more here!

The goal is to make significant strides in:

Increasing awareness of the pervasiveness and destructive nature of weight stigma, and
Providing effective strategies for combating weight stigma

This year, Weight Stigma Awareness Week is being held as a FREE, online blog conference. Each day will feature tracks filled with information from popular blogs and experts writing content exclusively for this program. Featured tracks will include information about:

Weight Stigma in Diverse Populations
Health and Weight Stigma at All Sizes
Consequences of Weight Stigma in Healthcare, Employment and Education
Weight Stigma Research
Weight Stigma Viewed Through the Eating Disorders Lens
Combating Weight Stigma

For a list of participating Featured Bloggers, please visit here. How You Can Participate: We encourage you to join in both the

Art project See Through… From Weight Stigma to Body Acceptance – a body sculpture project through the medium of tape (description and instructions here).
Blog conference by blogging about your personal insights and experiences surrounding weight stigma (more info here).

Additional Weight Stigma Awareness Week events include a Tweetchat, Webinars and a Virtual Mixer with Keynote Address to be given by Brian Cuban, author of Shattered Image and Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) activist! BEDA will announce the schedule of events shortly so follow the Facebook Event Page Weight Stigma Awareness Week 2013 or Twitter hashtags #WSAW #weight #stigma #bullying #bodyimage to keep up with news and conversation! To find out more about what weight stigma is, tools to combat it and other ways to get involved, please visit the BEDA website.

About The Author

Patricia Colli, Editor of Beutiful Magazine, is a human rights activist, equality advocate, and promoter of health, acceptance and wellbeing. Having experienced disordered eating, unhealthy exercise patterns and poor body image, she is especially passionate about shedding light on eating disorders and the power of body acceptance.