By: Veronica Melendi
This past Monday, November 14th, Kent Place students, from Kindergarteners to seniors, celebrated Be Body Positive Day. Students were encouraged to wear orange on Monday, as orange is the color that represents kindness. By wearing orange as a community, Kent Place wanted to remind students that they should be kind to both themselves and others.
Kent Place’s Upper School also welcomed speaker Athena Nair, an artist, activist, and healer. They first interacted with The Body Positive program after representatives and facilitators from the program visited their high school during their senior year, in the fall of 2018. During this experience, Athena became a Be Body Positive Facilitator who encourages others, primarily teens, to be loving and supportive of themselves and others.
S. Gandhi, a sophomore at Kent Place, thought that, “They were a very inspiring speaker and it was great to hear from someone I could relate to and so close in age. The topic they discussed isn’t something we talk a lot about at KPS so it was very insightful.”
This past September, Athena starred in a documentary series on Disney+ titled Growing Up. Disney+ remarks that the goal of this series is to, “represent a wide range of lived experiences, giving audiences emotionally powerful narratives that offer an engaging look at teenage-hood and the diverse social, familial, and internal obstacles young people face on their path to self-discovery and acceptance.”
Athena’s work and strides for body equality and representation did not stop there. They also spoke at a congressional briefing to help support and pass the Eating Disorders Prevention in Schools Act and at a TEDx talk about body positivity and fatphobia.
Kent Place students thought that Athena’s visit with The Body Positive program was inspiring and uplifting. We encourage anyone who would like to hear more about Athena’s work to watch their TEDx talk (linked below) or the Disney+ Growing Up series (also linked below.)
Athena’s TEDx talk:
Growing Up Documentary-Series
https://disneyplusoriginals.disney.com/show/growing-up#:~:text=They%20represent%20a%20wide%20range,to%20self%2Ddiscovery%20and%20acceptance.