Adios Barbie

EDH TweetChat with Pia Guerrero, founder and editor of AdiosBarbie.com – November 20, 2015

EDH: Welcome to today’s #EDHchat! We are excited to have you all with us! We would like to start by welcoming our special guest, Pia Guerrero, the Founder of Adios Barbie, who is here to share more with us about her wonderful organization.

Can you please tell us about your organization, Adios Barbie? What inspired you to create this organization?

Pia Guerrero: Adios Barbie, the website, grew out of a book of the same name: Adios Barbie, Young Women Write About Body Image and Identity. It was the late 90s and we felt the emergence of the web was a great opportunity to bring body politics and intersectional feminism to more people. At the time most people didn’t even know what the term “body image” meant.

For us body image means more than how one feels about their body, it addresses the personal, social, and political implications that come with living in a culture that only values a wealthy, thin, Eurocentric, cis, heterosexual (and completely made-up) ideal.

EDH: What Resources are available through Adios Barbie?

Pia Guerrero: We hold several community engagement Twitter parties a year where panelists and followers share articles, as well as infographics, stats, and wisdom on different issues around body image, especially ED.

Most parties focus on awareness raising, self-care, and support like our upcoming parties #yogabodyheal and #thx4support which offers support all day on Thanksgiving to those especially challenged by family and food on the holiday.

We speak across the country on how body image and identity formation relate to intersectional feminism, anti-racism, social justice, and media literacy.

We run two writing and social media training programs a year where we mentor university age students how to heal as well as exercise power by engaging with their own stories and by advocating for larger social justice issues outside of themselves.

EDH: What message are you hoping to share with the community through the work and mission of Adios Barbie?

Pia Guerrero: No matter who you are, thick or thin, Adios Barbie is a safe place for you to explore your identity. Our message isn’t simply to “love your body” but to encourage folks to examine how systemic oppression and the corporate interests of the media breed insecurity that makes us obsess about things like the shape, size, color of our bodies instead of investing in something greater than ourselves like feminism and social justice.

EDH: What advocacy efforts are currently supported through Adios Barbie that supports positive body image?

Pia Guerrero: We are currently working on a campaign that brings light to the fact that the ED support community is largely for and driven by white women, and as a result further marginalizes folks of different identities who suffer from ED.

The goal is to transform the field to not only be more inclusive but to also commit to diversifying the field of practitioners to reflect the identities and experiences of so many sufferers.

EDH: What encouragement might you share with an individual today who is struggling with poor body image?

Pia Guerrero: You are not alone. That your body is not the problem. Whether it be a history of abuse, neglect, or systemic oppression, your feelings about your body are informed by a greater context of social conditioning and control.

EDH: Where can we learn more about you and Adios Barbie?

Pia Guerrero: Just check-out our website! Everyone is welcome.

EDH: Thank you, Pia, for sharing this great insight about body image and your organization! Thank you for participating in our Twitter chat today, and we hope this information brings you hope.

If you are in need of resources for an eating disorder, visit our website at Eating Disorder Hope.