Activity on Self-Confidence and Body Image

At the international tent, the “Free Being Me” activity is running. It is a three-part activity with one larger pre-booked activity and two smaller drop-in activities.   

The three activities are based on material from WAGGGS and made possible with financial support from DUF.   

We follow a group of junior guides and scouts from the Peter Lassen group taking part in the registration activity “Confi-action!”, a station trail with five stations where the groups have the opportunity to try out, challenge and strengthen their self-confidence and self-esteem. Before the trail starts, volunteer Grace asks the guides and scouts to write a list of their strengths. Grace explains that when the station trail is over, the guides and scouts will sit down again and write about what the trail reminded them that they are (also) good at.   

Station trail with a focus on the senses  

The Peter Lassen guides and scouts set off on the trail, and at the first station Tea has to build a LEGO tower. Tea is blindfolded and guided by her fellow guides and scouts Nanna, Osvald, Johan, Sally and Vitus. And just to make it a bit trickier, the LEGO building has to take place at the bottom of a tub of water.   

The guides and scouts are great at working together and quickly move on to the next station, where everyone has to eat a mealworm if they dare.   

The five stations on the trail focus on the senses, on strength and endurance, on testing limits, on cognitive abilities (an escape room) and on friendship.  

After the station trail, the guides and scouts can go up to Joakim, who is a volunteer on one of the open Free Being Me activities. Here, the guides and scouts are given a bag of equipment for a sensory trail involving five of our senses.   

The idea behind this is to make the guides and scouts more aware of their bodies and their different senses. This is done by having the guides and scouts play a game of Vildkat (Wildcat) to use their sense of sight, while the vestibular sense (sense of balance and movement) is activated as they take turns playing ball and spinning round and round.   

The Ideal Wall Encourages Reflection on Body Ideals  

The last Free Being Me activity is called the “Ideal Wall”, a collage wall where you reflect on body ideals and how they affect us.  

To get the guides and scouts thinking, a number of questions have been put up on the wall for them to consider. The questions are about body ideals, and a selection of them can be seen below:  

• What do you appreciate that your body can do?  
• When do you feel accepted for who you are?  
• When did you first experience that your appearance mattered in the world?  
• Do you think celebrities are as happy as they appear?  
• Which positive qualities in yourself do you overlook or tone down in everyday life?  

The guides and scouts sit around a table and write their answers on coloured paper. Some take up the offer to decorate their answers with clippings from weekly magazines, and in the end the answers are put up on two large noticeboards, which have gradually turned into big collages with the cut-outs and the many thoughtful answers from the guides and scouts.  

The Princess Pays a Visit  

H.R.H. Princess Benedikte also stops by the Ideal Wall during her visit to Jamboree Denmark, and it is no surprise that the royal household has heard about the activity, as it is a well-established concept that has been used for many years in an international context.   

Free Being Me is a global educational programme developed to strengthen children and young people’s body confidence and self-esteem by challenging narrow beauty ideals and body pressures. Through the various activities, participants learn to think critically about the media, appreciate diversity and feel free to be themselves.   

Since 2013, Free Being Me has reached millions of young people in more than 125 countries.