Workshop teaches girls, women how to view self-image
By Samantha C. DePoy
Staff Writer

FARMINGTON – Take a few squirts of honey, a handful of cucumber slices, a dollop of yogurt, a half a banana, one or two strawberries and some oatmeal. Toss ingredients in a blender. Mix.

And then slather on your face.

The result: delighted senses, refreshed mind, a tightened complexion, a youthful fruit-kissed glow and, as some were surprised to find out Sunday afternoon, more self-confidence.

The everything-but-the-kitchen-sink concoction was just one of the out-of-the-ordinary ways 18 Farmington-area girls and women broke out of their shells and learned how to feel comfortable at a body-image workshop held Sunday at the University of Maine at Farmington.

Created by UMF junior Ally Day, the series of workshops is part of a statewide media literacy campaign about body image known as Turn Beauty Inside Out, which works in a variety of different forums to make people aware that true beauty is defined by who a person is, and not what they look like.

Fruity facials

The afternoon workshop started with introductions to the five people from the community and 13 UMF female student volunteers: Give your first name, where you are from and your favorite food. Favorite foods ranged from Twinkies to prime rib.

Then it was on to wacky ice-breaking games and the blenders started to whirl and the fruit started to fly.

The goal of the homemade facials, explained Day with an oatmeal and avocado blend caked to her cheeks, was to loosen people up, have them spend time nurturing their bodies, get practice seeing how their body reacts to different things and make their faces feel great.

The responses were varied. Smells great. Tastes good. Feels cold. Skin, it was noted, felt tighter, cleaner and fresher.

Later, the group ate snacks, listened to pop songs about not conforming when it comes to beauty, watched a video about images in the media and then, talked about what it all meant.

For UMF senior Nicki Steede, getting together with a group of gals and talking about issues that affect women was reassuring.

“It’s nice to know there are other girls who have body image issues,” she said. “It makes it more of a cultural or societal thing than just a personal thing that affects only me.”

Twelve-year-old Megan Arsenault of Dixfield was one of two adolescent girls who attended. “It’s OK to be who you are,” she said, when asked what she had learned. “My favorite part was the facials. I thought that they were like, really fun.”

In the end, the volunteers found the workshop equally as rewarding as those who came from the public.

Get the message out

“Even though we didn’t have a lot of people, we still got our message out there,” said Liz Nunley, a UMF freshman from Raymond.

That message was that images seen in ads, magazines and movies are fake, unobtainable and not healthy. Participants were encouraged to look critically at those media images, and not buy into them whether it was boycotting the purchase of a trendy fashion magazine or not shopping at stores that use stick figures in their advertisements.

“Eat what your body is craving. Exercise when you have pent up energy … Rest when you are tired and just find the time to nurture yourself,” Day advised. “We need to start changing the scripts that are in our head when we look at the mirror. If one girl here can make a friend of hers feel more comfortable, that’s a worthwhile workshop.”

For many participants, like Nunley, being beautiful isn’t about makeup, or how much she weighs or what brand of jeans she wears. For her, it’s about what’s inside.

“If you feel good, than you’ll send that out to other people,” Nunley explained. “Whoever you are, you have to be happy with yourself – that’s true beauty. For me, I feel beautiful when I make someone else laugh.”

For more information about future workshops, phone UMF’s Center for Human Development at 778-7034 or Ally Day at 778-7860.

sdepoy@sunjournal.com

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