Let Kids Live — In My Size

It’s bad enough that the diet and weight-loss industry spends so much time targeting women and making sure that none of us really likes our bodies no matter what we do, now they are targeting kids.

WW (formerly known as Weight Watchers but they’ve gone through a rebranding to attempt to change their focus onto “health”) has developed a new, free “nutrition and weight-loss app for kids as young as 8, and up to 17” according to an article in Time.

According to the article, the initial announcement that WW would market a weight-loss app to 13 to 17-year-olds drew a hefty amount of criticism. But instead of making WW stop and think whether this was a good idea, they decided to make an app for kids that are even younger.

My horror at the news of this app was palpable and this story immediately went to the top of my “to blog” list. It threw me right back to my earliest diets, and I can easily imagine being a kid with a parent who is logging every bite of food that gets put in my mouth.

The fact is that the influence that parents have over the way their children will approach food as they grow up can’t be calculated. It must be a nearly impossible balance to strike between letting kids make their own food choices and encouraging them to live healthy lifestyles. But imposing an app that has numbers children can’t possibly be able to comprehend and contextualize is not the way to do it. All it does is set up a good/bad dichotomy and lead to an increased risk of disordered eating. Even ScaryMommy had a few things to say, courtesy of actress Jameela Jamil:

Source: https://twitter.com/jameelajamil/status/1161533115510218753

We have become so worried about our kids being fat because we’ve seen how the world treats fat people that we’re willing to subject them to shame and disordered eating to prevent it. I can’t agree more with Jamil… if you’re worried about your kids’ health, there are ways to address it that don’t involve an app. And parents especially have to work hard not to fall into the trap of thinking that a fat child is an unhealthy child. How many kids do you know who are thin and do nothing but play video games all day? Are they healthier than the fat kid who rides their bike and plays with their dog? I know my answer to that question.

Also, whatever you think of an individual parent’s decisions to feed their children, keep it to yourself. I guarantee you do not know better than that parent what is good for that child, and you do not know what that child’s own preferences are. Stop treating kids like they don’t have agency in their own choices. Let kids live the best, healthiest lives you can offer them.