Fat Talk Free Week

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Back in 2008, I watched Tri Delta’s Fat Talk Free Week YouTube video and was moved to tears. The message stayed with me for a long, long time, and it helped lay the framework for Operation Beautiful.

 

The 2008 video

 

For the past three years, Operation Beautiful has been a big supporter of Fat Talk Free Week, which takes place on college campuses in October. The mission of the week is to encourage women and men to be more kind, gentle, and loving in their language about themselves and others. Tri Delta uses the week as an opportunity to talk about issues relating to body dissatisfaction and self-image.

 

This year, Operation Beautiful is an official partner of Fat Talk Free Week – I am so excited and thrilled.  And the sorority is shipping more than 10,000 packets of branded Post-Its to each and every sorority chapter. So if you’re on a college campus with a Tri Delta house, hopefully you’ll be seeing lots of Operation Beautiful notes in October!

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I asked Tri Delta’s Director of Marketing and Project Management (Holly Thompson) and the Senior Director of Educational Initiatives (Sarah) if they would answer a few questions about the history of the FTFW videos.  The videos are such a big part of the movement and are so fun to watch, share, and talk about.

The 2009 Video

Which video is your favorite and why?

 

SARAH:  My favorite is the first one from 2008. While I like them all individually, the first one still gives me chills when I watch it. I find myself going through multiple emotions, everything from empowerment to frustration. I think it truly captures the importance of recognizing the damaging impact of fat talk in our conversations and the control it can have over our own body image.

 

How does your group brainstorm ideas for the FTFW videos?

 

HOLLY:  Tri Delta hasn’t made a FTFW specific video since 2009. In 2010, we let our biggest supporters submit their own videos because we knew that they were just as passionate about the key messages as we were. In the beginning, we wanted to make the video impactful and memorable, emotional, yet simple. We knew the facts about the damaging impacts of fat talk would speak for themselves, and recognize the importance of raising awareness about body image. The company we worked with understood how important the message was to us and made our vision come to life.

What do you think is key for creating effective and ‘share worthy’ videos?

 

HOLLY:  You have to know your audience, and what points you want them to walk away with while being limited to two or three minutes. You have to be clear, concise, and ready to make an impact.  For our message, it wasn’t about a gimmick; it was about the words we were using because ultimately, that’s what created an awareness campaign like Fat Talk Free Week in the first place.

The 2012 Video

 

The 2011 Video

{ 15 comments }

 

  • Suzanne July 27, 2013, 12:04 pm

    This is fantastic!! My university doesn’t have sororities, but is there another way I can get involved?

  • Sara @ LovingOnTheRun July 27, 2013, 12:29 pm

    This is such a great thing! Women are so hard on themselves and it is amazing to see how much I catch myself with “fat talk” We need to learn to love ourselves – every imperfection. It is great for women to band together to build each other up instead of tearing each other down as they seem to do a lot! Thank you for promoting this!

  • Abby July 27, 2013, 1:48 pm

    I second Suzanne! We don’t have sororities either, but I would love to start a similar movement at my school!

  • Allie July 27, 2013, 2:54 pm

    I love this! These videos are awesome and this such an important message to be sending!!

  • Anna B July 27, 2013, 7:16 pm

    Wow! This is wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing. As some one who has struggled with body image and disordered eating, this is so refreshing to see.

  • Jill July 27, 2013, 8:03 pm

    Congratulations on this partnership! I wish something like this had existed when I was in college.

  • Emily July 27, 2013, 10:41 pm

    I just emailed this to every woman I know that is close to me – just got back from a work trip and vacation-so easy to get caught up in negative self talk regarding eating and exercise choices while out of our daily routine. So happy I came across this. Always inspiring Caitlin. Continued success with your training 😉

  • Amanda July 28, 2013, 10:56 am

    I’ve never seen these videos before, and they made me cry. I really wish we as women could let go of the fat talk and the hate and embrace our beauty that we all have as individuals. I wish society didn’t favor stick skinny as the ideal. It’s funny. I know obesity if a problem in our nation and should be addressed but so is being too thin yet it doesn’t seem to get the same attention. Your insurance goes up if you are overweight. But if you’re underweight, nothing happens. Both are not good for your body and can cause serious health problems. But we as a society love hating on the fat, on what we think of as ugly. We need to stop this.

    Thank you for sharing this! And for starting your Operation Beautiful movement. You are really making a difference! I hope by the time my daughter grows up, things will be at least a little bit better in this regard.

  • Carol July 28, 2013, 11:23 am

    These videos are GREAT !!! I emailed them to my nieces – such an important message for all of us of all ages . Again – THANKS Caitlin for enlightening us once again to be true to ourselves and those girls and women around us !

  • Kristi July 28, 2013, 2:21 pm

    What a great message for everyone! I can tell how excited you are just by reading this post.

  • Alex July 28, 2013, 2:50 pm

    I think one of the coolest things about this is that the symbol for the Greek letter Delta is used to signify a change….so it’s pretty awesome that Tri Delta has made such an impact and inspired such change. As a society, we definitely need to change the way we talk about and think about our bodies and health, instead of size, weight, and numbers on a scale. Thanks for all you’ve done Caitlin to help spread such a positive, encouraging message, and to Tri Delta as well!

  • Stacie July 28, 2013, 5:05 pm

    Unrelated to this post (which was GREAT btw….) LOVE your new header! 🙂

  • Karen @ Runner Girl Eats July 29, 2013, 9:29 am

    This is such a great campaign! I live in a college town with a DDD house so maybe I will start seeing some around 🙂

  • Perter July 30, 2013, 5:15 am

    Good site

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