If you've read my book, you'll know I was bullied as a child. As an adult, I tend to not let insults bother me but as a kid they made me miserable. While being bullied, adults rarely interceded. Supposedly now there are more anti-bullying initiatives...

Unless you're a fat kid. In Georgia, a group has billboards vilifying and victimizing fat kids and NAAFA considers believes these billboards criminalize fat kids: NAAFA demands that the Georgia Children's Health Alliance immediately remove their billboards targeting fat children. Billboards depicting fat kids are extraordinarily harmful to the very kids they are supposedly trying to help. They have also pointed out that a recent study has shown fat kids actually eat less and that same year a study from UCLA suggests our media and cultural obsession with achieving a certain weight does little or no good and may actually undermine motivation to adopt exercise and other healthy lifestyle habits.

Instead of having programs that make sure all children of all sizes eat well (this also means having only carrot sticks for lunch isn't healthy), we have fat children targeted by Let's Move and this program in Georgia. All to make them thin. (Programs like this have never worked and can cause an increase in eating disorders as fat children eat less food than their body needs and thin children eat less so they don't get fat.)

Even worse the Safe Schools Improvement Act (SSIA) an anti-bullying measure does not include language about physical attributes such as fat, thin, tall and short. Golda from Body Love Wellness has a handy link and form letter to contact your senators asking them to please add body size into the bill.

I don't think we need to pass on body hatred for our children. Encouraging them to have more play and to eat better is a good idea but let's pass on trying to put children into a narrow cookie cutter, some children are natural slender, some are big. Some stay big, some slender out as they get taller.

And if you live in Nevada contact your state assembly member asking them to pass the Healthy Workplace Bill.