
Tricia Davis and Paige Killian started the organization to motivate girls, ages 10 to 12, to learn to love themselves and to learn how to be encouraging to others. BAM's first retreat was held this past June. The purpose of the retreat was to show girls that success doesn't come from outer beauty.
Davis and Killian carefully selected speakers who would be sure to push the message in the right way. Language used to discuss the topics was selective: Instead of saying dieting, the dietician chose to instead say balanced eating; instead of losing weight or getting thinner, the yoga instructor discussed fitness and heart-health. The retreat featured sessions with each speaker, including an artist, a fitness guru, a dietician and a tri-athlete, who is also a recent amputee. BAM plans to host another weekend retreat next year.
"We want the girls in the Lone Star State to be the most confident in the world," Davis said. Eventually, Davis and Killian want Beautiful Amazing Me to impact girls all over the country. Media is to blame for the insecurity many girls feel, Killian said. It inundates girls with what success is and what beauty is but avoids reality. BAM's goal is to prevent women from having a negative self-image by starting them young and having them grow up loving themselves.
"I learned that it's great to be myself-just my own person," said Alyssa Poston, who attended the retreat in June. Alyssa said she will tell her friends about her experience with BAM, especially all the new things she tried. From Zumba to sampling the spiny exotic fruit Rambutan for the first time, the weekend was about having new experiences and getting to know what it means to be yourself.
BAM introduced Fort Worth to the retreat by showing the movie Miss Representation, a film about how media affects girls" self-esteem. The screening was held at the Cowgirl Museum, and the turnout was far more than expected, having to turn away 84 families at the door that wanted to see the film. Between the screening, word of mouth and social media, it was no surprise that BAM's popularity has grown.
One of the more humorous ways Davis and Killian tried to teach about how the body changes during puberty was they showed blown-up copies of their sixth grade photos, proving how they've changed over the years.
Beautiful Amazing Me is trying to make strides in the battle against the media's influence in the lives of girls and hopes to impact the self-esteem crisis that is so prevalent in younger generations today.
To learn more, visit beautifulamazingme.com.