From an incredibly young age, children start to recognize the expectations others have for the way they should look and act. I remember my then six-year-old sister asking me if she looked fat while playing dress-up, and I couldn’t believe how quickly she had learned to feel ashamed of the extra weight helping her grow. I also grew up hating my curly hair because of comments from well-meaning people. When I would straighten it, I would always hear, “It looks so good! You should wear it like that all the time.” But now it’s one of my favorite things about my appearance, and I attribute that to seeing so many beautiful women with curly hair in my own life and depicted on TV and other media.
It can be difficult as a caregiver to find child-friendly media that doesn’t feed into the harmful body image standards that are so common today, especially when raising children of color in a world that rewards white-centered beauty ideals. However, in the past 10 years we have seen a huge increase in the number of children’s books focused on body positivity and acceptance, which has allowed me to cultivate this short list of picture books as an accessible starting place. As always, feel free to reach out to us by phone or in person and we would be more than happy to help you find even more body confidence books for children of all ages.
- Sulwe written by Lupita Nyong’o and illustrated by Vashti Harrison
- It’s OK to be Different written by Sharon Purtill and illustrated by Sujata Saha
- I Love Me! written by LaRonda Gardner Middlemiss and illustrated by Beth Hughes
- Eyes That Kiss in the Corners written by Joanna Ho and illustrated by Dung Ho
- I Am Jazz! written by Jessica Herthel & Jazz Jennings and illustrated by Shelagh McNicholas
- Her Body Can written by Katie Crenshaw & Ady Meschke and illustrated by Li Liu
- I Am Enough written by Grace Byers and illustrated by Keturah A. Bobo
- I Am Every Good Thing written by Derrick Barnes and illustrated by Gordon C. James
- Under My Hijab written by Hena Khan and illustrated by Aaliya Jaleel
- When Aidan Became a Brother written by Kyle Lukoff and illustrated by Kaylani Juanita
– Haley, Youth Services Assistant