The Australian Government Positive Body Image Awards held at Aria last Friday night saw Dolly magazine take out the major award, with the BodyThink Program and Girlfriend magazine also being highly commended.
Dolly received the Positive Body Image award for its strong commitment to promoting positive body image messages to young people.” The magazine has a policy of no-retouches and uses real people instead of models for its photo shoots.
While we’re honoured by this award, the reason we put these measures in place isn’t for the positive press – we’ve done it for our readers,” says Dolly editor Tiffany Dunk.
Our role first and foremost is to serve our readers in the best way we can. I’m thrilled that teen mags like Dolly – and the girls who buy them – are setting a precedent in the way media tackles the issue of body image.”
Girlfriend magazine was also recognised for its no-retouching policy and use of age-appropriate models and readers of all shapes, sizes and ethnicities.
Girlfriend has been committed to helping improve the body image of teen girls for so many years now; I’m thrilled to have our efforts recognised by this wonderful initiative,” says Girlfriend editor Sarah Tarca.
As a teen magazine editor, and unofficial big sister to over 300,000 Aussie girls, I take my role very seriously, and body image is one of those topics that needs to be constantly talked about so that we can help to shape a nation of well-informed, media literate girls who can feel body confident.”
