Kindness Is Embracing Yourself: Celebrating the qualities that make us unique | Author & Educator Christina Testut

An inspiring story of overcoming the negativity of diet culture and learning to embrace and celebrate one's uniquenesses. Kaitlin chats with Christina Testut: educator of over 20 years in New York, co-director of her school's social emotional learning and equity programs, and author of Embracing your Features - a wonderful book for children and adults on loving your "flaws" and what makes you unique.Their conversation focuses on Christina's personal experiences with diet culture and Weight Watchers, an obsession and need to be small due to societal pressures and norms, feeling like she wasn't enough, how she has moved on and began the journey of embracing herself, the importance of giving yourself, and others, grace, and the impact of her book on both children and adults.Full transcriptQUOTES"As I got older I realized the message I was getting loud and clear from the world was that my body wasn’t good enough and I needed to change in some way""I started to engage in a lot of disordered food behaviors, and I was obsessed with staying small because I was getting the message that the smaller version of me was the better version of me, and I finally felt like enough""I was trying to have the world understand that our bodies and parts of our bodies that are actually normal are not flaws but features that make us who we are.""I had this fear of what would people would think if I couldn't maintain this weight loss because now you're all telling me how great I am, am I not gonna be great any longer?""You're the same Christina with the five pounds on or the five pounds off. People in your life love you no matter what you weigh and you could hear a pin drop in the meeting.""Children they come to us like with this little backpack on not the backpack with their books. But with backpacks of what goes on in their house, you know, what goes on with their family.""Our job is to teach them. Yes, academically. But we have to meet the whole child. And the child is so much more than just getting them to a certain reading level or getting them to a certain reading level or getting them to a certain, you know, benchmark. There's just so many more aspects to them and I don't think children will learn the best they can if they don't feel loved. If they don't feel like they believe in themselves. If they don't feel happy.""But yes, it's teaches us to accept our features as features and not flaws. But I think even more importantly, is that it teaches us that our appearance is not the most important thing about us and in a world of social media, you know, in a, in a world where your bombarded by messages of this made up, you the made up unrealistic beauty standards that we see all the time. I feel like kids need that message and their adults, like, Who cares what you look like? That's not what matters, what matters is, you know how you treat people""I mean my advice of a lot of things obviously, give yourself grace, but at the same time, Allow yourself to learn and listen to a different perspective and reflect and I read books about, you know, anti-fat bias. I listen to podcasts now about you know, weight stigma and I'm learning things that I never knew before that are opening my eyes, you know, and realizing that It's not me, you know, I'm not the problem""Your beauty is not always found in your looks, it can be found in the way you treat others, your best features are the things that come from the inside. Kindness, empathy,c ompassion are what make you glow.""Embracing your features can change the world. It teaches others that it's okay to be themselves, too. Just like you, you are enough. You are worthy exactly as you are.""If I show people that it's okay, that I gained weight, there's nothing wrong with that and be proud of who I am then I'm giving my children permission to accept, you know what I'm saying? I'm giving other people watching me like the idea like, wow, like I'm okay, too. Like I can, I can accept myself also""If we just could accept ourselves, And not want to hide and change for everybody else then. You know, maybe there will be a ripple effect and everybody else can accept themselves too.""Kindness is being less, judgmental of, not only others, but yourself. And giving yourself grace. So you can give others that same grace."Connect with us on social media:'Kindness Is' Podcast InstagramKind Cotton InstagramKind Cotton TikTok