Teens explain true beauty
Newbury youngsters hold town centre campaign
A CAMPAIGN organised by Newbury teenagers to raise awareness of eating disorders has been labelled as a success.
Creating Confidence was organised by the group of 16- and 17-year-olds through the National Citizens Service.
On Wednesday, August 11, they set up a stall in Northbrook Street and asked shoppers about their idea of beauty, comparing the answers to the media’s perception of beauty.
Co-organiser, Emily Spellman, 17, said that the aim was to highlight the true nature of what is beautiful.
She said: “We were surprised at the range of answers we got from people about their ideas of what beauty is and there was often quite a big difference to what they said compared to the stereotypical idea of beauty in the media.
“We really wanted to focus on eating disorders because it affects so many young people who are often dealing with it in silence.”
The group of 16- and 17-year-olds came up with the topic and developed the campaign as part of a three-week course with the NCS.
Emily added: “It went really well and we had a lot of people showing interest which is great and there were quite a few who told us that they knew someone or that they themselves had dealt with an eating disorder at some point.”