Narrabeen Sports High principal Dane Ropa acknowledged “a small group” of Year 9 girls did not want to go on the trip to Wet’n’Wild on Thursday because of body image concerns. He said it was something they were trying to address.

One parent said just 10 out of 35 girls were going, until head of Year 9 Rheanna Hesp spoke to them and emphasised the day was about having fun, not comparing bodies. It’s believed that around 15 girls from the mixed-gender school went on the trip.

In a Mission Australia youth survey released this week it found body image was one of the top personal concerns of those aged 15 to 19, along with coping with stress and depression.

Mr Ropa said not all of those who didn’t go were worried about body image and around the same number of girls went as last year.

He said they became aware of the problem when teachers heard the girls talking about it.

“A small group of girls were confident to raise the issue with the year adviser,” Mr Ropa said.

He said the school had already identified body image as something that affected students following a pupil survey earlier this year.

He said they ran 11 different educational programs at the school that addressed the issue.

Pittwater state MP and Education Minister Rob Stokes said it was a sad reflection on society that young people should feel pressure to conform to some sort of media promoted idea of beauty.

“I would encourage them all to enjoy their age,” Mr Stokes said.

“It would be a shame for girls to miss out on fun because of these fears.”

He said there were a variety of programs in schools to equip young people with positive ideas about healthy living, healthy eating and “being comfortable in their own skin”.

Tanisha Ivanoff, 14, and one of the girls who went on the excursion, said a couple of years ago she went through a “dark period” regarding her own body image, but had thrown herself into sport, excelling in hurdles.

Now she has started an Instagram account looking to inspire young girls to exercise and be healthy, rather than aspire to an unattainable body shape.

“Everyone wants a small waist, big butt, big boobs and a thigh gap,” Tanisha told the Manly Daily.

“A lot of the girls on social media have had plastic surgery or use filters or apps to look like that.

“Mrs Hesp said we were all fit and no-one in our grade was obese.

“But lots of girls are body cautious. They are scared they will be commented on.

“I yelled out that we are all perfect just the way we are.

“It hurts me that girls don’t want to have fun just because of their bodies.”

Tanisha’s mother Tina said she would be horrified if one of her daughters didn’t want go on an excursion because of their body image.

“I suppose it’s all about comparing and not feeling adequate in their minds,” Mrs Ivanoff said.

“We must encourage to own what we have and be grateful that everything works and to concentrate on the positive things.”

Kate Tolley, a clinical nurse for youth health, said it wasn’t just girls who suffered from body image issues, boys did too, they just weren’t as vocal about it.

She said in relation to girls, many had impossible body shape aspirations, “thin, but still curvy”, like the Kardashians. Others want a toned, muscular look.

She said parents can help by not offloading their body issues onto their children and focusing on their talents and skills, rather than what they look like.

“It’s best to avoid body talk,” Ms Tolley said.

“If parents notice a change in behaviour, such as not wanting to go to the beach, withdrawing from activities or a change of behaviour around food they should talk to their child.”

Ms Tolley said living next to the beach in an environment where people tend to wear less, could increase pressure to look a certain way. “There’s more opportunity for comparison,” Ms Tolley said.

She said there were trained counsellors at the dedicated youth mental health service, headspace, that could help young people who were concerned about their body image. She urged people to seek help before their body image fears turned into a mental health crisis.

GYMS PLAY A ROLE IN THE DILEMMA

A GYM owner has started a social media campaign with the hashtag #mybodymoves to encourage women to aim for a strong body, rather than a thin body, after being horrified by his teenage daughter’s Instagram feed.

Joe Bonington, 50, who runs Joe’s Basecamp in Brookvale, has two daughters Honor, 11, and Edie, 13, and said he was seeing girls, who were in a perfect weight range, wanting to lose that last imaginary five kilos.

In a powerful video, which has been shared hundreds of times since its release earlier this week, he said Instagram feeds were making perfectly healthy girls believe they were overweight.

He said the fitness industry, including himself, was part of the problem.

“They are actually trying to get to a weight where they are going to be unhealthy and hormonally challenged,” Mr Bonington said.

“I’ve been a part of that problem. I’ve actually trained people for bikini body challenges. I’ve helped people strip down to sub-10 per cent body fat.

“We’re doing more damage than good.

“There’s girls out there who are committing suicide. There’s girls out there suffering from depression because of this whole frenzy that we are a part of.”

Elly Gearing, 23, from Fairlight, who works at the gym, said the problem was young women and young girls who were at a very vulnerable and impressionable stage in their lives, have their social media pages flooded with images of fitness and bikini models who have an unattainable and often unhealthy body image.

“By focusing solely on what women look like, the fitness industry is failing to recognise what women are really capable of,” she said.

“That’s what the message in our campaign video is about. We want women to know that their bodies are capable of so much more than looking good in a swimsuit.”

At Joe’s Basecamp the aim is to strengthen and train for a goal, such as climbing a mountain or a marathon.

“I used to think training was about losing weight and looking fit,” she said. “But once I saw how much stronger I was getting and better I was feeling my mentality changed.

“I care less about what my body looks like. I have cellulite, but I can squat my body weight.”

SELF-CONFIDENCE FOR KIDS THROUGH DANCING

TEACHERS are seeing girls with image issues as young as six years old.

Leesa Martin, principal at Elanora Heights, said she was noticing kindy kids thinking they “have to dress or look a certain way” because that’s what people expected.

“I’ve heard children from Year 3 upwards say, ‘I’m not having cake because I will get fat’.”

She said by the time girls reached their teens they were “in crisis”.

It was one reason why she got involved with Dance Sport Confidence, a program that helps children develop self-confidence and “feel more comfortable in their own skin”.

Run by Gordon Gilkes, a former Dancing with the Stars performer, his ballroom dancing program teaches the children old-fashioned skills.

Boys are taught to go over to a girl, make eye contact and ask her to dance. The girl agrees, saying thank you. The girls also get to ask the boys. They learn different ballroom dances, where they have to work together and communicate.

Ms Martin said it was an “antidote to social media”.

Next year, Dane Ropa, principal at Narrabeen Sports High, is piloting the program to his Year 8 students.

“The program will be compulsory,” Mr Ropa said. “It’s about boys respecting their dance partners and girls learning self-respect. We want the girls to know how they should be treated and how to respond to a compliment.”

Mr Gilkes said the aim was to teach boys to give out positive body language towards girls so they felt they were “acceptable”.

But he said girls were not wallflowers, it was about empowerment. “It’s about getting kids off their mobiles and realising they are connecting with real human beings,” he said.

Where to get help: thebutterflyfoundation.org.au, headspace.org.au