Love Yourself Week events aim to encourage self-love among people on campus during midterms.
Ohio University’s Women’s Center, the Women’s Panhellenic Association, the Positivity Project and I AM THAT GIRL collaborated on the week’s activities, which will take place Oct. 16-20. Love Yourself Week will feature events like No Makeup Monday and scale smashing, and it will introduce an art exhibit and a lifestyle workshop as new events this year.
“A lot of people get really down on themselves (during exams),” Positivity Project Vice President Jasmine Whittington said. “They spend a lot of time inside, just studying and not taking time for themselves. I think it’s important that (Love Yourself Week is) right around this time.”
The week will kick off with No Makeup Monday, an event that asks women to shed their makeup for a few hours.
Devyn Savitsky, a graduate student studying counselor education and supervision, said she plans to participate in some events because it’ll give her a break from academic work.
Society puts too much pressure on women to wear makeup, but it’s still important for women to be able to choose whether to wear it, she said.
“I think that a lot of people kind of need that sense of community,” Savitsky said. “If they see friends or other women around them kind of doing the same thing and being able to compliment each other, then it causes a domino effect.”
Whittington, a sophomore studying early childhood education, said there will be a table in front of the fourth floor of Baker Center on Monday where students can take off their makeup with wipes and pose with a photo frame to show their fresh faces.
Monday’s second event aims to bring fitness to campus with a lifestyle workshop and exercise session from the Strong Movement.
“It’s a women’s lifestyle brand inspiring women to build a strong body and a strong mind and to become their best through fitness, nutrition, healthy living and personal growth,” M. Geneva Murray, the director of the Women’s Center, said.
Tuesday will feature an art exhibition of special photos taken by Mariah Jarrett, the chapter co-leader of I AM THAT GIRL. The pictures will show the photo subjects holding props or doing activities that make them feel beautiful.
“I started my business just to get other people to feel confident,” Jarrett, a junior studying specialized studies, said. “I capture people how they truly look and feel. Everybody’s in motion. Everybody’s doing something.”
Murray knew of Jarrett’s work and asked her to do the special exhibition. The photo subjects came from a mix of people they knew and other women around campus who were interested. The photoshoot took place on a balcony in Baker Center that shows “picturesque Athens” because the photo subjects represent the town, Jarrett said.
The pictures reflect women of different ethnicities and shapes and include a professor along with some students.
The photo subjects were allowed to bring any props they thought represented who they were or what they were passionate about. One woman brought a book about women’s suffrage because she identifies as a feminist.
“It’s eye-opening to see what makes different people feel beautiful,” Savitsky said. “Not everyone will feel beautiful in the same context.”
An in-depth discussion of body positivity within LGBT groups will take place Wednesday. Participants will discuss how those body positivity movements have helped LGBT-identifying individuals reclaim their bodies and how some mainstream body positivity movements have neglected their experiences, according to the event’s Facebook page.
People will also have the opportunity to smash their insecurities Thursday when scale smashing returns for this year’s events. There are a limited number of scales, so people who are interested should arrive early to if they want to secure one, Murray said.
Love Yourself Week ends Friday with some old-fashioned letter writing, but instead of being delivered like last year, the letters will be left at the Women’s Center for recipients to pick up. People can write messages encouraging their recipients to feel empowered and positive about themselves, Murray said.
The week stresses self-love, which should be thought of as accepting “all versions of yourself,” Savitsky said.
“It’s a time that hopefully we get people thinking a little bit about how we talk about bodies in our society,” Murray said. “And people can rethink how they can talk more positively about bodies.”
