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Building a positive body image, health at Blogher and more

So, today, I'm at the Blogher conference in San Francisco, and for those who aren't familiar, it's a educational event for women interested in blogging or essentially writing a journal online -- as we also encourage at EmpowHer.com through our SHARE feature.

While the conference topics range, I've already met a few women with wonderful backgrounds in the world of health including a very young woman who helps build data visualization software (which she thinks has a wonderful healthcare application) and someone who believes in healing through a combination of traditional care and spirituality.

One of the more thought-provoking sessions I attended that was related to health -- both body and mind -- was that of building strong body images in children especially when many think the messages coming from the media make it next to impossible.

The discussion, which was led by a group of women who blog about parenting, generated a lot of great ideas on how parents can instill a strong sense of body acceptance.

A few of the resources that came out of the conference were:

Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood

The Normal Breasts Gallery which shows breasts of all shapes and sizes; and

Scarleteen which markets itself as "Sex ed for the real world".

A recommended read was "Third Base Ain't What It Used to Be."

In a time when the media seems to be pushing unrealistic expectations of beauty and health on children, what has worked for you to help your kids develop a positive body image? Do you think children are sexualized at an earlier age? How do you deal with it?