Young women often stay silent about body shame because speaking up can feel risky, futile, or even embarrassing, especially when the people or spaces meant to help have already normalized the harm. European research shows that body-image pressure is tied to poorer mental health, social withdrawal, and reduced participation, while our report “Body Liberation for Gender Equality in Europe” finds that trust in formal support remains low and shame, self-blame, and fear of judgment are major barriers to seeking help. Rather than reflecting a lack of resilience, this silence often reflects the social conditions in which body shaming has become normalized.
Culture of body shaming
Across European sources, a consistent picture emerges: body shame is gendered, socially reinforced, and linked to reduced wellbeing and participation. The European Parliament study on social media and girls shows that digital spaces can intensify negative body image, reinforce gendered norms, and, importantly, contribute to self-censorship and reduced participation. EIGE likewise notes that girls’ body dissatisfaction is associated with poorer mental health, and that perceived overweight matters more than actual body mass for psychological harm.
Living in a culture where bodies are constantly judged and commented on makes it easy to internalize shame around one’s body and its worth. Body shaming is ever-present through daily interactions, popular culture, and social media, creating a pattern in which young women are conditioned to believe that something is inherently wrong with them. Including their inability to “get it together” or “not take it to heart.” Many may also have experienced situations where speaking up about body shaming did not result in meaningful support, making future help-seeking feel even less worthwhile.
Such confidence talk further implies that young women should deal with body shame themselves instead of seeking external support. The effects of placing the responsibility solely on them are evident. Responses in our report commonly noted that young women often did not know they could turn to someone for help, thought they might be overreacting, or said that they dealt with it on their own.
Why support feels risky
Both existing research and our report underline that body shaming is not happening at the margins of life, but rather in everyday environments. Respondents most often reported experiencing shaming in school or university and at home, meaning that the people and institutions that should feel safest are sometimes where stigma is first normalized. Verbal forms were by far the most common, but institutional harms also appeared, including being treated with less respect or not being taken seriously by professionals.
When body comments become routine at school, at home, or online, young women quickly learn that objecting may bring even more scrutiny. Many are not only afraid of being dismissed but also of reliving painful and often public experiences of body shaming. This pattern helps explain why seeking support can feel unsafe. Alongside the belief that they may be in the wrong after all, standing up to those responsible can require considerable courage. Our report showed that confidence in responding to body shaming is uneven, with young women in larger bodies reporting lower confidence than those in smaller bodies. This finding reinforces the broader pattern that repeated experiences of stigma can undermine confidence to respond or seek help.
What can we do about it?
The challenge is complex and cannot be solved through simple measures. However, several patterns provide valuable insights into how we can create more meaningful support for young women. Some of these were expressed directly by respondents, who wanted practical tools for standing up for themselves, such as scripts and opportunities to practice responding. At the same time, we see a crucial need to look at the bigger picture and begin strengthening broader support systems while working toward cultural change.
In line with body liberation principles, building self-awareness and resilience is only a small part of the work. Seeking support becomes safer when we stop treating body shame as an individual resilience problem and start recognizing it as a social justice issue. This is not only because body shaming affects individual wellbeing, but because it shapes who feels able to participate fully in education, work, healthcare, and public life.
Alongside developing skills and knowledge for self-advocacy and immediate support, youth work can do much more to shift responsibility for the harmful effects of body-shaming culture away from young women themselves. This means prioritizing work with the people and systems that directly shape their experiences (families and friends, educators, health professionals, youth workers, policymakers, and many others) while simultaneously building support systems that are genuinely safe, accessible, and trustworthy.
