Building a brighter future for body image: the final BRIGHT workshop
On 19 June 2026, we held the final BRIGHT project workshop at the University of Surrey, bringing people together to discuss how we can better support positive body image among young people.
The workshop brought together health professionals, researchers, organisations working in education and body image, and people with lived experience. It was the final in-person workshop following earlier online sessions with professionals from education and healthcare backgrounds.
Our aim was to build on those earlier conversations, identify the issues participants considered most important, and think collectively about where future efforts should be focused.
What should we prioritise?
We started the day by sharing some of the key themes that had emerged from previous online workshops. Participants were then given three avatar tokens and invited to place them alongside the issues they considered most important.
It wasn't always easy to choose! Some participants felt that the different priorities were closely connected and chose to position their avatars across more than one topic.
Three areas ultimately emerged particularly strongly:
- Support and training for teachers and parents
- Prevention and early intervention
- Addressing normalised behaviours and access to good-quality, free resources
These priorities provided the starting point for the next stage of our discussions.
Mapping the way forward
For each of the priority areas, we asked participants to think about where we are now and where we would like to be.
Using a roadmap activity, participants added their ideas about what might help us move towards better body image support for young people. They were asked to think about possible effective ‘tools’. This generated lively conversations across the room, with people bringing perspectives from healthcare, education, research and lived experience.
A recurring theme was that supporting positive body image cannot be achieved by focusing on young people alone. Schools, families, health professionals and wider online communities all have a role to play.
Participants also reflected on the importance of making conversations about body image feel relevant and approachable. This included thinking about how adults talk about bodies, food and appearance; how young people navigate social media and changing beauty ideals; and how resources can better represent and connect with different experiences and identities.
Another interesting discussion concerned the difference between simply having resources available and ensuring that those resources are actually useful. Participants highlighted the value of accessible, inclusive and evidence-based information, but also discussed the importance of who delivers it and how it is introduced. Young people and families may engage differently when information feels relatable to their experiences.
What happens next?
The final workshop brought together the different strands of conversations we have been having throughout the BRIGHT project. The ideas generated across our workshops will now contribute to the BRIGHT Toolbox of Possibilities, where ideas and pathways to impact are illustrated.
Body Image Resilience in Guidance, Health, and Teaching (BRIGHT)