How do you feel about your body? Do you find yourself saying that you “feel fat?” It’s alarming how many women and girls (and yes, boys and men too) do.

If you or someone you know is struggling with body image issues, Life Doesn’t Begin 5 Pounds from Now by Jessica Weiner is a must-read. Weiner has written several books on the subject, and she’s currently traveling with the Dove Self-Esteem Fund tour, speaking to young girls about self-esteem. Life Doesn’t Begin 5 Pounds from Now is all about changing the thoughts and language that contribute to poor body image. It’s a fun and engaging read, full of anecdotes from real girls and women and quizzes to help us uncover the areas we need to work on.

I’m giving away a copy of this awesome book to one lucky winner. Here’s how to enter:

For one entry each:
• Leave a comment on this post.
• Twitter about the giveaway, and include a link to this post. Include your Twitter username in your comment for verification purposes.

For three entries:
• Blog about this giveaway, and include a link to this post. Include a link to your post in your comment.

So you can have up to five entries.

This giveaway will run from now through 11:59 pm December 16th, 2008. U.S. residents only may enter. Winners will be contacted via email, so you must include a valid email address in the comment form to win. Good luck!

I haven’t been able to make the time to blog much lately, but when it comes to an issue as important as violence against women, I manage. You may have seen my last two posts on UNIFEM’s Say No to Violence Campaign (if not, click the links and have a look). Well, the signature drive will be ending on November 24th, so if you haven’t added your name yet, I urge you to take a minute and do so.

Over 900,000 people have added their names as of the time I’m writing this, so their goal of one million names is within reach. If you believe that this is as important an issue as I do, please help them get there.

I hope you found the Nicole Kidman videos in my last post about UNIFEM useful and informative. UNIFEM has released three more videos of Kidman talking about the campaign and violence against women. Here they are:

If you’d like to subscribe to this podcast via iTunes or iPod, you can do so at http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=295972193. And if you have a blog, Twitter account, email newsletter, or any other way of getting the word out, please do. Let people know that they can help the cause, even if they are unable to donate or volunteer.

The deadline for online signatures on UNIFEM’s petition to the U.N. to fight violence against women is fast approaching- it’s November 24th to be exact. They’re already over halfway to their goal of one million signatures, but they still need a lot more. If you haven’t already, please take a moment to add your name.

UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador Nicole Kidman has been working with the organization to help get the word out, and she has traveled to some of the areas where women face the most violence to see what they go through firsthand. Here are a few clips in which she answers some questions about UNIFEM’s campaign.

If you’d like to hear more from Nicole Kidman on UNIFEM and the Say No to Violence Campaign, you can subscribe to this podcast.

To learn more about violence against women, take the Violence Against Women Quiz and visit the UNIFEM website. And please don’t forget to add your signature to help the cause!

If you’re a regular reader, you’ve probably seen my previous posts about Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty and their self-esteem workshops. If you haven’t, please take the time to take a look. As the mother of a young daughter, this is a subject I’m very passionate about.

One of the Dove Self-Esteem Fund’s most recent projects has been a study entitled Real Girls, Real Pressure: A National Report on the State of Self-Esteem. It revealed some alarming statistics that point to the existence of a self-esteem crisis among young girls. Here are a few of the findings:

• 7 in 10 girls feel that they do not measure up in some way, whether in looks, school performance, or relationships.
• 75% of girls with low self-esteem said they engaged in negative behaviors, including such things as smoking, drinking, cutting themselves, bullying and disordered eating.
• 25% of teen girls with low self-esteem have purposely injured themselves.
• 25% of teen girls with low self-esteem have engaged in some form of disordered eating.

The study also found that the older girls get, the less likely they are to talk to their parents when they feel badly about themselves. That means that it’s never too early to start fostering good self-esteem.

These statistics are frightening for any parent of a teen or preteen girl. Isn’t it time we did something to turn it around? Dove has been on a mission to do just that. It is their goal to reach five million girls around the world with self-esteem programming by the year 2010. In addition to their self-esteem workshops and advertising campaigns, they offer a wealth of online tools for girls, moms and mentors on their Campaign for Real Beauty website. There you’ll find booklets, interactive exercises, and even tools that can help you hold your own self-esteem workshop.

I’ve had several people ask me about where they can attend Dove’s self-esteem workshops. I finally found a page where you can sign up to receive alerts about workshops in your area. I’ll leave you with another short film produced by Dove that sums up a few of the reasons behind the self-esteem crisis.

Did you know that as many as one out of three women in the world will be victims of some form of physical abuse in their lifetime? This includes domestic violence, rape, honor killings, and other violent crimes against women. Sadly, in some cultures, these actions are not only condoned, they are encouraged by tradition.

In most cases, the attacker is someone the woman knows. Take domestic violence, for example. The World Health Organization conducted a survey on domestic violence of ten countries in 2005. The only country in the survey in which less than 20 percent of women had been victims of domestic violence was Japan. In the U.S., 22 percent of women had been abused by a significant other, and in the U.K., the figure was 30 percent. Four countries (Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Peru and Tanzania) had abuse rates in excess of 50 percent.

If you’re like me, you’re wondering what you can do about these tragedies that occur each and every day. You might be surprised to learn that you can make a difference just by signing a petition. The United Nations Development Fund for Women is hoping to collect a million signatures on a petition to strengthen the U.N.’s efforts to help stop violence against women through their Say No to Violence Campaign.

You can sign the petition online. Visit the Say No to Violence site to learn more and add your name.

There is no excuse for the number of women who are subjected to violence in the world today. But we can let the United Nations know how important its education programs and legislation efforts against these horrible acts are to us just by signing our names. Won’t you take a moment to add yours? And if you’re in a position to donate to the cause, you may do so here.