Shattering appearance ideals

Authors: Dr Phillippa Diedrichs, Professor of Psychology, and Dr Heidi Williamson, Associate Professor.

We’ve both been at the Centre for Appearance Research (CAR) for over a decade. Together, we co-lead a team of researchers, focusing on the co-creation and testing of body image tools for young people.

We work alongside the Dove Self-Esteem Project, which is the community impact and social purpose programme for Unilever’s largest brand, Dove.

Since 2012, we’ve developed and tested tools, policies and strategies that have reached over 100 million young people around the world with partners at UNICEF, Nike and the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.

Dr Phillippa Diedrichs, Professor of Psychology, and Dr Heidi Williamson, Associate Professor.

"As leaders in the psychology of appearance and body image research, we’re on a mission to shatter appearance ideals and stereotypes so that young people are not held back by low body confidence."

Dr Phillippa Diedrichs and Dr Heidi Williamson, Professor of Psychology and Associate Professor

Dr Phillippa Diedrichs and Dr Heidi Williamson Professor of Psychology and Associate Professor

Low body confidence

The majority of young people don't have body confidence. It affects all genders and cultures, with girls, gender-diverse people and LGBTIA+ communities being disproportionately affected.

Appearance-based stereotypes in relation to skin colour, body size, ageing and physical disabilities are also widely prevalent. This has wide-ranging impacts on people’s health and well-being. For example, 8 in 10 girls opt out of important life activities, like putting their hand up in the classroom, going to the doctor or trying out for a team or club, due to low body confidence.

See the impact, feel the impact

For several decades, researchers have been developing programmes to improve body confidence among young people. However, we’ve really struggled to get effective, evidence-based interventions out to lots of people in a sustainable way due to a lack of resources and expertise in marketing.

When we started working with Dove, our goal was to harness the reach and popularity of their brand and work together to deliver evidence-based body confidence education on a global scale.

Creativity you can measure

We’re now 10 years into our partnership. Over those 10 years we’ve developed more than 20 different body confidence tools, including the Girls Room, a five-part film series crafted by Emmy Award-winning producer and writer Lena Waithe, Dove, the Centre for Appearance Research and Attn:.

We’ve also worked with UNICEF, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, Cartoon Network and a range of creative and tech agencies to co-create animations, e-books, school lessons, digital games, social media marketing campaigns and chatbots. Our most recent project included a world-first collaboration between Nike and Dove to deliver body confidence education to coaches in sporting settings. 

But it’s not just about the creative concepts and wide-reaching platforms we’re using to reach young girls. We rigorously evaluate everything we do through randomised controlled trials and qualitative research, so that we can be sure of the impact that these tools are having on young people’s well-being.

Positively improving real lives

We’re very proud of our work with Dove. Dove is now the world’s largest provider of evidence-based self-esteem education and the tools we’ve created together have reached over 100 million young people around the world.

We’re always exploring new ways to reach more young people and look forward to continuing our work together.