Dr Phillippa Diedrichs
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Role:
Department staff:
Collaborations:
- Dove Self-Esteem Project
- Unilever
- UNICEF
- Cartoon Network
- World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts
- Transport for London
- Girl Effect
- Government Equalities Office
- Nike
- Meta
- YouTube/Google
- NHS England
Research staff:
- body image
- eating disorder prevention
- Social Media
- interventions
- advertising
- weight stigma
- health psychology
- adolescent health
- Gender
- Eating disorders
- appearance psychology
- Technology
- Generative AI
- Mental health
- Evidence-based healthcare
- Evaluation Research
- cosmetic procedures
- appearance-related stigma
- movement and sport
Teaching staff:
- Qualifications:
- PhD (Health Psychology), BSc (Psychology, First Class Honours) The University of Queensland
- Position:
- Professor of Psychology
- Department:
- College of Health, Science and Society School of Social Sciences
- Email:
- Phillippa.Diedrichs@uwe.ac.uk
- Social media:
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About me
I'm a Professor of Psychology and a body image, appearance diversity and mental health expert. I'm passionate about creating a world free of restrictive beauty ideals, gender norms, and appearance stereotypes, where no one - particularly women, girls, and gender-diverse people - is held back by appearance pressures and unjust systems. I use science and partnerships to make this a reality.
At the Centre for Appearance Research, I study factors that shape body image (e.g., social media, technology, gender, culture) and develop and test tools to promote body confidence and prevent eating disorders. My research is published in over 100 papers and book chapters, and has featured in the New York Times, BBC, Time, Forbes, and teaching case studies at Harvard's Business School and School of Public Health.
I excel at leading high impact industry collaborations. I've worked with Unilever, Nike, NHS England, UNICEF & Meta to drive social impact, including establishing and leading an 11-year partnership with the Dove Self-Esteem Project. I've also advised the British Government, OfCom, Transport for London, and parliamentary select committees.
The evidence-based interventions that I've co-created have reached over 140 million people in 156 countries.
Some project highlights include:
- The Body Confidence Book, my illustrated guide for teens on building body acceptance.
- Body Confident Sport, education tools for coaches and girls in partnership with Nike & Dove.
- Real Beauty Prompt Playbook, a guide on how to create representative and diverse images on generative-AI tools.
- Take a Break, a safety feature on Instagram to help teens manage their time online.
- #ShowUs, a Getty Images photo library shattering beauty stereotypes.
- Rebel Girls Growing Up Powerful body confidence and sport podcasts and videos.
- Free Being Me, the first evidence-based girl scouts badge programme.
I'm a Fellow of the Academy for Eating Disorders and serve on the Editorial Board for Body Image: An International Journal of Research. I am also a Master Trainer for The Body Project, a world-leading evidence-based eating disorder and body acceptance programme.
If you're looking for body image programmes and tools, download my free resource guide here.
Area of expertise
Youth mental health, body image, eating disorder prevention, appearance-based prejudice and discrimination, technology, generative AI, social media, advertising, intervention development and evaluation, weight bias, strategic science, academic-industry collaboration, ethics, mixed methods research, children, adolescents, adults, psychology, appearance research, gender.
Publications
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