JoAnn Stevelos, MS, MPH
Me
Parent~Researcher~Children's Wellness Advisor
These 3 roles helped me to develop Worthy! A transformative program for parents who are worried about their child who is gaining too much weight too fast. Worthy is a self-paced program that will help your child feel loved, hopeful, and safe at their "healthiest weight."
My Work
As former Director of the NYS Center for Best Practices to Prevent Childhood Obesity I learned how to best help parents talk with doctors, teachers, relatives, friends, and neighbors when their child is gaining too much weight too fast. As former Director of Research, Evaluation, and Learnings for the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s children’s school wellness programs, and evaluator of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move program, I learned that the obesity epidemic is complex, daunting, and that simple solutions don't work.
Visit my blog on Psychology Today, Children at the Table to learn more about my work in children's health.
My Why
Over the years I have listened to many parents share their deepest feelings about their own weight and their children’s weight. Feelings about weight gain and weight loss are deeply embedded in our personal histories. These feelings can bring on bouts of depression, shame, and hopelessness. For many of us, we have lost our ability, our personal armor, to protect our sense of self from feeling less than, from feeling unworthy.
During my research, many brave parents have shared their own stories of feeling unworthy because of their size and shape. Many times a parent would stop and look away—still feeling shame, embarrassment, unworthiness.
There is one interview I will never forget. A parent shared a name they were called by their sibling and how much it still hurts. Her story broke my heart. I am a co-crier by nature, so I teared up right along with her as we recognized as adults how awful it was to be called that terrible name as a child. We can do better for our children. We can help them feel proud of their shape and size and of their many talents that make them special.
When you sign up for Worthy you will be part of a pioneering group of parents who will change the way we care for children who are gaining too much weight too fast.
Worthy will show you how to use the power of kindness to help your child feel worthy, loved, supported, and hopeful!
Worthy: Helping Children Be Their Healthiest Weight
Empowering parents to help children who have gained too much weight too fast while keeping them safe, happy, and at their healthiest weight!
Our children's hearts must be tended to. Their hearts must be nurtured and cared for tenderly and with compassion. The obesity epidemic has created a lot of places that leave us, and our children, feeling unwelcome, unloved, like outsiders. We need to reclaim our loving tenderness towards ourselves and our children and set strong boundaries around the kind of words we use about our bodies and our children bodies.
Loneliness, isolation, hopelessness can damage or weaken our hearts and make them work harder to pump blood. Love, kindness, compassion, tenderness provide the best fuel to help our hearts do their job.
How do we care for our hearts and our children’s hearts?
By learning to set boundaries that protect ourselves and our children from negative environments, people, and events. And by speaking kindly to ourselves and our children about our bodies, and rightly demanding how others speak about our size and our children’s size.
Our hearts need us to focus on the things we do well, the things that make us feel loved, the things that bring us joy and contentment. Our hearts need us and our children to be at their healthiest weight.
During Worthy you will learn what is a "healthiest weight" as well as the following:
- Learn the latest on the childhood obesity epidemic and how it may affect your child.
- Learn the 5 things that are needed for your child to be their "healthiest weight."
- Learn ways to set productive boundaries at home, at school, and at the doctor’s office so your child can thrive.
- Develop an action plan to transform your child’s world so they feel safe, healthy, and happy everywhere.
COVID-19 and Children Gaining Too Much Weight, Too Fast
School: mostly online. Extra curricular activities: canceled. Social distancing and quarantine: feel never-ending. With COVID-19 and its impact touching us all, it's no surprise we are turning to food and Netflix for comfort. And, as a result, more children are gaining too much weight too fast.
Enrolling in Worthy will help your family reclaim and reframe healthy routines and learn how to be at your healthiest weight during this crisis.
Should I Talk About Weight With My Child?
Because obesity is a complex problem, we must be very careful when we accept easy answers for why children are gaining weight rapidly. If we believe that obesity is simply the result of eating too much and not exercising enough we are putting the blame on the children and more often, the parents.
Enrolling in Worthy will help you explore what is the best way to talk about weight in your family. You will develop your own script for talking about weight inside and outside the home.
The Power of Kindness
There is a way for us to talk about gaining too much wight too fast with love, compassion, and kindness. There is a way to feel worthy and compassionate towards ourselves and our children at any size, at any weight. When it comes to parenting children in this obesity crisis, we must pay attention and stay engaged.
Enrolling in Worthy will help you and your child build resilience and courage to keep trying to make healthy choices, be active, and find the simple joys of having meaningful and deep connections at home, at school, and in their communities.
What People Are Saying
I am grateful for Worthy. As a mother and aunt to 11 children, most of whom are on the cusp of puberty, I found myself at a loss and not knowing how to best support these children I love as they begin to feel growing pressures and anxieties about their body sizes and shapes. After participating in the Worthy workshop I now have information, strategies, and resources to help our family build healthy habits not only around food, but also relating to our mindsets and how we communicate with each other and ourselves. A very big thank you to JoAnn and her team for developing Worthy!
Worthy: The Power of Kindness in Raising Body Positive Children
Self-love is the basis of healthy relationships in life and is a teaching that most children do not receive. Every parent should read this book to provide their child with the foundations of self-love for success in all aspects of their life, which is the wish of every parent. Full of invaluable information, it acts as a manual for teaching children to be healthy and happy in body, mind, and spirit from a place of compassion, kindness, and support. Worthy also provides parents an opportunity to become more self-aware of their own misconceptions and conditioned beliefs, thereby allowing for their own evolution and growth along the way. This book is a rare gem!
Sheila Patel, MD
Chief Medical Officer, Chopra Global
Board-certified Family Physician
So many parents are searching for ways to teach their children how to love themselves from the inside-out, but it’s hard to know who to trust for advice. As a mom of two young daughters myself, I feel this pain in a real way— the fear that our kids might one day be teased or bullied about the way they look; the worry that they will internalize the media’s "be thin at all costs" message or learn from their friends that it's okay to weaponize the word "fat." Stevelos offers a fresh perspective to body positivity, with actionable strategies for keeping children feeling healthy, safe, loved, and, yes, worthy.
–Leslie Goldman, MPH
Women’s health writer, body image speaker
Childhood obesity and overweight are on the rise and the causes are complicated and misunderstood. JoAnn Stevelos outlines the many underlying causes of obesity and sets the record straight, throwing a life preserver to parents who may be drowning in misinformation.
Often, parents feel judged by their child’s pediatrician, coach, or other parents, and resort to methods like putting kids on keto diets or restricting portions at meals. Instead, Worthy helps teach parents and caregivers how to support children with esteem-building actions and phrases of kindness, while learning how to address the fat-shaming practices in their child’s world – from overt bullying at school to being called “chubby” by grandparents to the subtle yet embarrassing practice of stepping on a scale in the pediatrician’s office. Self-reflection activities throughout the book teach parents and caregivers how to turn conversations around from fat-shaming to esteem-building in a non-judgmental way.
–Anastasia Schepers, MS, RDN, CDN, CLC
JoAnn Stevelos has crafted a wonderfully comprehensive look at the factors causing the spike in obesity in this country, particularly in our children. She has done so thoughtfully with an eye toward kindness in coping with this epidemic. Too often obesity triggers blame which in turn fuels the cycle of shame and a sense of hopelessness, neither of which are helpful in leading a full and healthy life. As she writes: "The spirit of this book is to prioritize your own and your children's happiness, safety, well being and to protect your hope for a better future together" and the words she's penned, the research she shares, does just that. Sadly, as she details, this generation of children will not enjoy a life expectancy greater than their parents due to many factors including obesity. Add into this mix the trauma triggered by the pandemic. Taken together it's clear that being gentle with each other, with ourselves must be the front line approach, the elixir we all need to find our way back to a healthy lifestyle, one that includes our physical, mental and spiritual needs. It helps us develop a sense of being worthy to enjoy all life has to offer, to be strong enough to weather what life brings us and to carve out a path that supports our well being. In the end it's not about the size of the waistline, but the breadth of our kindness. Stevelos shares this 'prescription' mixed with a healthy dose of delight. A must read for anyone raising a child (children) or nurturing their own, inner child.
–Benita Zahn, DPS, MS, CHWC
Navigating conversations about body image can be incredibly hard for any parent. Worthy teaches a powerful set of tools that will help you nurture a healthy relationship between your child and their body.
–Evan Walden, CEO, Getro Inc.
Every child is worthy of a body positive home, school, and medical environment. Using the power of kindness is the best way to create safe spaces for children of all sizes and shapes!
–Akerei Maresala-Thomson, MBA | Founder Institute and CEO of MYRIVR
This book offers hope and great insights into the power of kindness in raising children to have a positive attitude towards their bodies, both now and in the future. We wish every parent had a copy of Worthy to read when we were growing up. Truly inspirational!
–Elia Chan, MBA-- Founder-Managing Director of MYRIVR GROUP LTD-T/A MYRIVR Technologies
Our team of experts has been delving into the relationship between mental health and its impact on school violence. Since the conclusion of the coronavirus pandemic, we've come across reports highlighting the adverse effects on students' lives. With a noticeable increase in violence within schools, we are actively exploring the most effective methods to ensure the safety of both students and staff.
One crucial approach involves teaching children about their inherent worth from a young age and fostering a general respect for all life. Worthy guides children to embrace a healthy and joyful lifestyle in body, mind, and spirit, while cultivating a mindset of compassion and kindness.
This represents the cultural shift and emphasis on mental health that we believe will make a positive impact on safety and security within schools and for today's youth as a whole.
–Elisa Mula, Physical Security Strategist, Child Safety & Security Advocate