#39: Why should I be a "citizen parent"?

with S. Bryn Austin, ScD

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In this episode we discuss…

  • bryn’s background in public health, and how it influenced her understanding of eating disorder prevention

  • putting gas masks on when the air is polluted, versus working to clean up the air

  • why bryn founded STriped - a public health incubator focused on the prevention of eating disorders

  • building resiliency vs creating healthier environments

  • why diet pills are dangerous and why striped is working to ban their sale to young people

  • how the sale of weight loss products propagates harmful beauty ideals

  • striped’s second focus: digital alteration of images and incentivizing more realistic, diverse advertisements

  • striped’s third focus: legislation to ban weight discrimination in employment and education

  • why weight discrimination and weight stigma are social justice issues

  • working to change diet culture at the environmental level in tandem with making changes in your home environment

  • opportunities and resources for parents and providers to begin advocacy work (see links at right)

  • the power of parents as constituents to make change

  • the impact of children seeing parents engaged in advocacy

  • bryn’s answer to the million dollar question

This week we're joined by the award-winning health researcher Dr. S. Bryn Austin, who directs the Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders (STRIPED), a public health incubator. We discuss why policy matters when it comes to helping our kids fully bloom, and what parents can do to fight the thin ideal — and all of its nasty consequences — at the macro level.

Get our guide to body-positive parenting.

 

Dr. S. Bryn Austin is an award-winning researcher, teacher, and mentor. She is Professor in Social and Behavioral Sciences at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, and Director of Fellowship Research Training in the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital. She directs the Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders: A Public Health Incubator, based at the Harvard Chan School and Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Austin is the President of the board of directors of the Academy for Eating Disorders and Immediate Past President of the board of directors of the Eating Disorders Coalition, and she serves on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Eating Disorders and Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention. She is a social epidemiologist and behavioral scientist with a research focus on health inequities, especially those affecting socially marginalized adolescents. A unifying goal of her academic career has been to advance innovations in transdisciplinary science applied to eating disorders prevention and the study of health inequities adversely affecting sexual minority and transgender youth. Across her research and teaching initiatives, her aim is to offer the kinds of mentorship and opportunities that will help the next generation of talented junior scientists excel in their pursuit of health equity for all.

Connect with STRIPED on their website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Resources mentioned:

Jordan Best