Michelle Graham wants women to discover how much they are loved and treasured by God. All too often their self-image gets in the way. Michelle, an InterVarsity staff member who works with students at several northern Illinois campuses, says “body image has become as much a part of our daily lives as the air we breathe. But rarely do we stop to consider that it may have something to do with our relationship with God.”
Michelle’s new book, Wanting to Be Her, is subtitled, Body image secrets Victoria won’t tell you. The book, she says, exposes the lies that cost American women $20 billion a year on cosmetics and $74 billion on diet foods and send 7.4 million Americans to cosmetic surgeons each year.
Michelle says that our personal value is not based on our personal appearance, but that is the message young women are learning from their media role models. “The pressures that young women face today to look a certain way are astronomical,” she says. “As I searched for helpful resources, I realized that there were life-changing truths that not just my college students, but women of all ages, needed to hear.”
The media images that women compare themselves with are not real — they are fabricated by plastic surgery, cosmetics, and digital enhancement.
“We’ve been created by a loving God who formed us in our mother’s womb with precision and artistry,” she says. “The bodies we’ve been given are a gift of love from our Creator in order that we might collectively bear His image. He chose my nose, my eyes, my hair texture, my ethnicity, my breasts, my hip bones—and then called them “very good.” We are already being offered the love and acceptance we crave from the One who made us and knows us best.”
Michelle says women should look for balance in their life. “For instance, caring for our hair can be driven by a fixation on what others think of us,” she says. “On the other hand, caring for ourselves can also be a way of caring for the good gift that God has given us.”
Wanting to Be Her is published by InterVarsity Press. More information on this new book is available at the InterVarsity Press website.
