A few weeks ago a friend called me to share what she deemed to be very disturbing news. Throughout the fall, our staff and volunteers will work with hundreds of pre-teen girls to encourage self-confidence, positive body image, and an appreciation of health and fitness. The study , which was published earlier this year in the Journal of Eating Disorders, surveyed over women between the ages of 18 and Participants reported on a variety of measures including age, weight, body satisfaction, engagement in fat talk and old talk, and eating disorder behavior.