You’d Be So Pretty If….

By Dara Chadwick
Da Capo Press, $15.95, 237 pages

As overweight women everywhere know, it’s hard to feel good about yourself when the media throws stick figures at us every day. Now, try to imagine being the mother of a girl who is watching all of this through your eyes-every criticism you have of yourself amplified because you are her mother. You’d Be So Pretty If… explores how women who aren’t happy with their bodies can work through their own issues without projecting onto their daughters, and how to protect their daughters from undue worrying.

With chapters that focus on how body image is established and how we send mixed messages to our kids, Dara Chadwick answers how to “teach our daughters to
love their bodies-even when we don’t love our own.” Interviews with many women and girls and her own daughter explain how to navigate in an often tricky world and learn that size doesn’t equal worth.

Reviewed by Michelle Stulberger