The topic of body image has been on my mind a lot lately. Maybe it’s because being pregnant, I’m suddenly more aware of my body than every before (mostly since there’s more of me to love so I’m constantly bumping into things.)  Or maybe it’s because I’m thinking more about how I want to raise my kid.  How am I going to help him develop healthy food and exercise habits?  How will I help him feel confident in his own body?  These are all questions that had been bouncing around my brain.

This issue–which I think just about every kid and teen dealt with at some point in their lives–is one that should be discussed in children’s and teen literature.  What shocks me, though, is that when it comes the number of novels that actually address body image, there are shockingly few.  Sure, you can find shelves upon shelves of diet books or nutrition books, but that’s not what kids and teens are reading, right?

This week, I have decided to dedicate some time and space on my blog to discussing this very important issue.  Wednesday, I’ll be hosting the awesome Katrina Kittle, author of Reasons to Be Happy, which is a book that addresses body image distortion (and eating disorders) for middle grade readers.  As you may already know, just as there are few books that deal with body image for kids in general, most of the books that do address this issue are targeted to teens.  The fact that Reasons to Be Happy is written for a younger audience really makes it unique among body image books.

Thursday I plan to post a list of books for kids and teens that address body image.  I already have a few on my list, but would love to hear your suggestions as well.  If you have suggestions for books to put on the list, please leave a comment below!  My hope is that if we all put our heads together, we can come up with a solid list of books that deal with this issue.  Finally, on Friday Ghenet and I will be discussing body image in teen literature, in our weekly YA Cafe post.

Starting with today’s post, I’ll be running a series about body image in kid’s and teen literature.  My goal is to start a dialogue where we can discuss how books for kids and teens handle body image and also how we, as writers and adults, can play a positive role in helping kids feel confident in their own bodies.  But more importantly, for us to be role models, we must also recognize that we are beautiful, just as we are.

Which is why this week, if you’re on twitter, please join the conversation. I’ll be using the hash tag #whatmakesmebeautiful to share tweets about ways I’ve become confident in my own body image, and I invite you to do the same.  So tell me, what makes you beautiful?

Welcome Back to YA Cafe, where book lovers can gather and chat about teen literature. I’m your barista, along with Ghenet from All About Them Words.

Each Friday we pick from a menu of topics and share our thoughts on our respective blogs. We’ve also got plans brewing for interviews, events and even some exciting giveaways, so stay tuned! Join the discussion by responding in the comments, on your own blogs or on twitter using the hash tag #yacafe.

Today, Ghenet and I are really excited to unveil our very first video interview at YA Cafe.  A few weeks ago we met up with debut YA author Julia Mayer in New York and got a chance to chat with her about her first book: Eyes in the Mirror.  Some of the topics we covered:

• Julia’s adventures in publishing Eyes in the Mirror
• 826NYC, the awesome program where Julia wrote her first draft as a teen
• Writing from different points of view
• Seeing situations from multiple perspectives
• And, of course, Julia’s best advice for aspiring authors

Now, without further ado, here’s the interview!

We hope you enjoyed watching the video interview!   Guess what?  There’s also a giveaway!  Ghenet and I managed to score an ARC of Eyes in the Mirror, which we got Julia to sign an now we’re going to give it to one of you.  Just leave a comment either here or at Ghenet’s blog and we’ll let Random.org pick a winner.  Contest is open until Wednesday, September 21 at 11:59pm ET.  We’ll announce the winner next Friday.

Keep reading.  Keep writing.  Keep being awesome!

Hello all,

Today is just a quick post to give you an update about YA Cafe.  Ghenet and I have been brainstorming lots of fun new things to do on Fridays and we’re really excited to kick-start the new-and-improved YA Cafe next week, with a special feature on author Julia Mayer and her new book Eyes In the Mirror.  We’ll also be doing a giveaway!

Later this fall, we’ve got other fun things planned.  Also we were so excited by the YA Cafe Book Club that we’re planning to continue it, only with a slightly different twist so more people can participate without being limited by the book choices.

As always, we love hearing from you so if you have any suggestions of topics or YA-related issues you would like to see us cover, leave a comment or shoot one of us an email!

A huge thank you to everyone who’s supported this project so far!  You rock!

Some of you have already learned about the new DIY MFA site from Twitter or Facebook, but I wanted to make an official announcement on the blog today.  DIY MFA has a new home, a new look and will be featuring lots of new goodies over the next few months!

I will still be keeping all the DIY MFA posts here on iggi&gabi as reference, but will no longer be blogging about DIY MFA on this site.  Instead, the DIY MFA site, will feature a blog with regular posts as well as other fun things that will launch later this fall (newsletter and webinar to name a few).  The DIY MFA blog launches officially on Monday Sept. 12 but I’ve been announcing the new site to my writer friends (that’s you!) as a sneak preview.

If you’re interested in learning more about DIY MFA, hop on over to the site and check it out.  As always, I love hearing from you, so if you have thoughts or ideas to share, don’t hesitate to email me: contact.DIYMFA [at] gmail [dot] com

Keep writing, and keep being awesome!