This is an important issue of this day and age that young girls are under increasing pressure to look physically perfect. A research commissioned by Dove in 2017, the Global Girls Beauty and Confidence Report, uncovered that globally more than 50 percent of girls do not like the way they look, which results in serious impact on girl's overall confidence, life satisfaction, and willingness to engage in life-building activities at school, home, or her community.

It is likely that the impact in Bangladesh is worse, where girls are raised to believe that they must look a certain way to be considered beautiful. The objective of the workshop is to ensure that the next generation of Bangladeshis grows up enjoying a positive relationship with the way they look and have the confidence to reach their full potential being as they are.

On 28 and 30 October, over one hundred Unilever employees delivered classroom workshops to 3,500 girls across Dhaka, Chattogram, Rajshahi, and Sylhet with the following message — "Your appearance should be a source of confidence, not anxiety."

Nineteen schools participated in the programme, including Motijheel Government High School, Tejgaon Government High School, Uttara Girls High School and College, Civil Aviation High School, Agrabad Government Colony High school, Mission Girls High School, and Nasiba Khatun School.

Designed in conjunction with leading experts on appearance anxiety and confidence, including Professor Phillippa Diedrichs at the Centre for Appearance Research, University of the West of England, the workshop focused on appearance pressures and its sources through presentation and audiovisuals.

The girls engaged in role play, where they were taught how to respond to a friend who became disheartened by comparing herself with images of perfect beauty in the media. The interactive sessions encouraged them to share their thoughts and change their behaviour by showing positivity about the way they look.

At the end of the sessions, girls wrote positive messages on the 'Dove pledge wall'.

With the rise of alternate media and its unhealthy obsession with perfect portrayals of beauty, the definition of what is deemed beautiful has become an unrealistic yardstick against which a young girl continuously measures herself. It is high time we address the issue to ensure we raise a generation of confident girls who will grow up to be leaders of tomorrow.

Photo courtesy: Nayem,  Ripon, Saddam, Taj, Zubayer