Welcome
This is a photo of myself, age 3 beginning the journey of
self discovery.
A note from the creator, Kristy Budden - Deakin University, Melbourne.
Use your smile to change the world is aimed at students, teachers and parents and is about increasing self confidence and self esteem in children and adolescents.
On the site, you should find many useful activities, videos and links based around the media and positive body image. If you’re a teacher, make sure you visit the student section of the site as well. Because there are many great links that overlap between student and teacher that I couldn’t decide which category to put them in.
I feel that the area of self esteem and confidence is incredibly important, especially in today’s society when we are bombarded with media advertisements on tv, movies, magazines, papers, and especially the new technologies such as the internet. I believe that it’s important for students to understand the media and its influence on society, and understand how and why these are constructed. Now, I do want to quickly add that it is also important that we don’t create the overall idea that the media is just completely and utterly bad. That’s definitely not what I’m saying. We just want to make sure that we provide them with the knowledge that not everything they see in the media is true. We also want to equip them with tools to overcome negativity of the self – and this comes from not just the media, but friends, family and peers as well.
It would be hypocritical to pretend like we are all experts on self esteem and 100% confident every minute of every day. And I think that it is important to point this out as well. However, I still think it is important to increase understanding about why we are being pressured to look, speak and act a particular way. It’s our responsibility not just as parents, teachers, friends or mentors but as human beings, to let each other know that we are all unique and beautiful.
There are many activities and websites on here that can be used as tools to encourage discussion about the way we are and to be happy and confident with ourselves. I think many would agree that to be happy and confident as a whole, we need to be happy and confident with ourselves and believe that we can achieve whatever goals we set.
So have a look around, if you have any comments, questions or suggestions, I would love to hear from you. Just fill in the form on the contact page and I will make my best efforts to get back to you as soon as possible.
Use your smile to change the world is aimed at students, teachers and parents and is about increasing self confidence and self esteem in children and adolescents.
On the site, you should find many useful activities, videos and links based around the media and positive body image. If you’re a teacher, make sure you visit the student section of the site as well. Because there are many great links that overlap between student and teacher that I couldn’t decide which category to put them in.
I feel that the area of self esteem and confidence is incredibly important, especially in today’s society when we are bombarded with media advertisements on tv, movies, magazines, papers, and especially the new technologies such as the internet. I believe that it’s important for students to understand the media and its influence on society, and understand how and why these are constructed. Now, I do want to quickly add that it is also important that we don’t create the overall idea that the media is just completely and utterly bad. That’s definitely not what I’m saying. We just want to make sure that we provide them with the knowledge that not everything they see in the media is true. We also want to equip them with tools to overcome negativity of the self – and this comes from not just the media, but friends, family and peers as well.
It would be hypocritical to pretend like we are all experts on self esteem and 100% confident every minute of every day. And I think that it is important to point this out as well. However, I still think it is important to increase understanding about why we are being pressured to look, speak and act a particular way. It’s our responsibility not just as parents, teachers, friends or mentors but as human beings, to let each other know that we are all unique and beautiful.
There are many activities and websites on here that can be used as tools to encourage discussion about the way we are and to be happy and confident with ourselves. I think many would agree that to be happy and confident as a whole, we need to be happy and confident with ourselves and believe that we can achieve whatever goals we set.
So have a look around, if you have any comments, questions or suggestions, I would love to hear from you. Just fill in the form on the contact page and I will make my best efforts to get back to you as soon as possible.
