Body Image Impacts Social Activity: Survey

Leading lifestyle digital media company Refinery29 launches Take Back The Beach, a global multimedia initiative that approaches the “summer beach body” narrative in a new way.

Take Back The Beach features a body image survey of more than 1,000 millennial women on their body issues and experiences, and finds out how body image can shape everything from relationships to career choices.

Additionally, the program includes original images of women on beaches across seven international locations, including Cuba, Turkey, Ghana, Miami, and Bangladesh, showcasing how women of all cultures dress for the beach.

Girls’ Jemima Kirke and plus-size model Tess Holliday also share personal body image stories and what it means to feel confident in their own skin.

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Refinery29 will also release a comedic video looking at the five phases of one woman’s “bikini mind” at the beach as well as editorial essays examining modesty, and one titled, “Being The Wrong Kind Of Fat.”

Refinery29’s research reveals how body image is formed and the ways it impacts a millennial woman’s life. Survey findings include:

Body image impacts social activity. 64% of respondents avoid going to the beach because they feel self-conscious about their body and 42% avoid parties based on their feelings about their body.

Perception of body image is tied to those who are closest to us. 85% of respondents say their mother influences body image.

Millennial women begin to form opinions about their body at a young age. 70% of respondents said that they felt self-conscious about their body by age 13.

Scrutiny plays into how millennial women feel about their body image. 59% of millennial women said that they feel judged based on their body, yet 68% of respondents admit to judging others’ bodies.

“We want to reframe the conversation around body image in time for summer and restore a sense of confidence and joy to what people find to be a stressful season,” said Refinery29’s editor-in-chief, Christene Barberich.