The reseacrh

In 2017, Dove conducted a study on body image and body confidence. The findings of this study, which surveyed 5,165 girls aged 10-17 in 13 countries using a mixture of academic and novel measures, show that body image remains a global issue for girls.

Research surfaced 6 key behaviours/areas we must target to genuinely improve girls’ body confidence:

1. Family, friends & relationships
2. Teasing & Bullying
3. Talking about appearance
4. Media & celebrities
5. Competing and comparing looks
6. Respecting and looking after yourself

• No other self-esteem programme anywhere in the world is more academically proven than Dove’s (including government or NGO).
• Dove Self-Esteem Project (DSEP) materials are endorsed by government to be included in the school curriculum in France, Argentina and the UK.
• ‘An evidence-based widely used public health framework now underpins all DSEP interventions to ensure Dove’s work can create societal change. It is based on the simple idea that in order to create change across society you need to reach people at different levels of intensity and in different ways. The public health term for this is interventions.
• Level 1 interventions are academically validated schools, parents and youth leaders’ programmes with the intervention being delivered through an adult in the child’s life.
• The most popular educational workshop we use is developed for teachers, which includes five hours of content to use in their classroom.

Through rigours research, we have discovered that it is beneficial for a child to receive different levels of intervention to have the greatest impact.

However, we recently realized we needed to shift the development of our educational tools so that we directly reach girls.

To do this, we work with a range of experts to deliver world-class evidence-based programs that help young people develop more robust body confidence,

To broaden our reach it is imperative we work with experts to help us deliver these interventions.

Our key experts and partners are:

The Centre for Appearance Research (CAR)
At the University of the West of England in Bristol is a globally-recognised, respected, academic institution that specialises in all forms of independent research around appearance and identity. As part
of a long-established partnership, we have been working with Dr Phillippa Diedrichs, have supported have supported several research fellows, Melissa Atkinson as a DSEP Fellow and have cosponsored
their Appearance Matters conference.

WAGGGS (World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts)
In 2013, WAGGGS worked with Dove’s body image experts, including CAR to co-develop an evidence based, non-formal, body confidence education program. This five-week guiding program, called
Free Being Me works with 7-11 and 11-14 year olds to address the core issues that impact their selfesteem and body image.

Over the past five years together we have hosted and attended events at the United Nations to address the issue at the world’s highest forums of advocacy. This includes the Commission on the Status of Women and the United Nations General Assembly.

Cartoon Network
Dove partnered with Cartoon Network to help the next generation grow up confident through their favourite show, Steven Universe.

Steven Universe is an American animated television series. It is Cartoon Network’s first animated show created solely by a woman. Dove and Cartoon Network partnered together to create a series of six short animated films based on the six themes of DSEP, directed by Steven Universe creator Rebecca Sugar, with input from the Centre for Appearance Research.

The partnership brought together Dove’s academic expertise and scientific learnings with Rebecca Sugar’s creative talents.

UNICEF
Helps children fulfil their potential from early childhood through adolescence to adulthood. Together, Dove and UNICEF are working together to increase self-esteem of children, particularly girls.

UNICEF will be interacting with young people through schools and digital platforms to integrate Dove’s Self-Esteem Project content into UNICEF’s life skills programme.

Why Dove believes in promoting self-esteem

In parallel to Dove’s product marketing, Dove set up the Dove Self-Esteem Project (DSEP) to direct resources to raising body confidence. The DSEP consults with global experts and they have recommended that interventions are more effective when delivered to young people rather than to adults.

Dove does not promote its product advertising or product samples to children as part of the Dove Self-Esteem Project.

At Dove, we believe that no young person should be held back from reaching their full potential – but 7 in 10 girls with low body esteem put their health at risk by not eating.

The research Our key experts and partners are:

• Over 80% of girls with low self-esteem avoid certain activities because they feel bad about their looks
   
• 8 in 10 girls feel under pressure to never make mistakes or show weakness
   
• 7 in 10 women and girls believe media and advertising set an unrealistic standard of beauty that most can never achieve

Since 2004, Dove has been building self-esteem in young people. By 2020, we’ll have helped 40 million through our educational programmes. Dove has already reached more than 35 million young people across 140 countries which makes Dove the largest provider of selfesteem education of its kind.

Glossary of terms

• Body image
  How a person thinks and feels about their body and the way they look. Every person, regardless of how they look, can experience low body confidence. Body image is not static and can change over time
   
• Body confidence
  The way we think and feel about the way we look and how we behave as a result
   
• Appearance ideals
  The way our culture tells us is the ideal way to look at a certain moment in time
   
• Appearance pressures
  Pressures we feel to look like an appearance ideal and to be beautiful, glamorous and attractive
   
• Self-esteem
  A person’s overall sense of self-worth or personal value
   
• Anxiety
  A feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease about something with an uncertain outcome
   
• Evidence-based Content Development Framework
  A structure that is based upon a scientific literature review on adolescent girls’ body confidence (conducted by the Centre for Appearance Research, UWE)
   
• DSEP Societal change
  A change that affects women and girls of all ages and impacts them throughout their lifetime