Could joyful movement get an inactive generation out of their bedrooms?
The Body Happy Org has contributed to a new Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) report, which reveals we are raising a ‘bedroom generation’ of inactive teenagers who are spending most of their free time in their rooms, cut off from activities that are proven to help them thrive. At the heart of this is a lack of confidence and self-esteem and negative body image. Things that some joyful movement (moving for pleasure rather than appearance) could help to fix.
Inactive Nation: Part Two makes difficult reading. It reports:
more than a third (37 per cent) of 15-year-olds say they hardly ever leave their bedroom, except for school
nearly half of adolescents do not meet healthy levels of physical activity
one in 10 secondary school girls doing no physical activity whatsoever.
At the same time, there’s an increasing deterioration in adolescent health. Referrals to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services have more than doubled in the past six years and health professionals report seeing a rapid deterioration in young people’s health in the past five.
Why physical activity matters for teenagers' health and self-esteem
Turning the tide will take more than just a social media ban - we need active, social alternatives. The UK Chief Medical Officer has said that “if physical activity were a drug, we would refer to it as a miracle cure”. Indeed one study found that reallocating just 15 minutes of a 14-year-old’s day to physical activity is linked with improved health and higher self-esteem.
But there are barriers to this. While cost can exclude many from sport clubs, curriculum time devoted to PE has steadily declined in recent years (PE is the most cancelled lesson in the school day). Plus, as we already know, negative body image can be a huge barrier to engagement in sport - especially among girls.
How body image affects girls' confidence in PE and sport
The report tracks a striking parallel decline across the secondary school years. It finds:
positive body image among girls falls from 76% in primary school to just 39% in secondary school
confidence taking part in physical activity falls almost identically, from 70% to 36%
boys experience a decline too, but a far smaller one
nearly twice as many girls as boys say a dislike of their PE kit stops them being active (28% vs 15%)
one in three girls reportedly missed PE lessons because of anxiety about school changing rooms - with many feeling uncomfortable getting changed.
As one youth worker told researchers: “If they have to get changed, they won't do it — they'll pretend they forgot their kit… They feel like people are looking at them, then comparing themselves with other people and other bodies.”
For some young people, this means they won’t be active at all, as they believe sport is not for people with a body like theirs. Others will swap organised sport or social activities for solo gym-going. But when body anxiety pushes young people toward exercising alone rather than with others, they lose out on the connection and belonging that team sport offers.
“Social media is a solitary way of spending your time and the gym can be very similar,” Body Happy Org founder Molly Forbes told the CSJ. “Going to the gym is very different from joining a football club, for example, or a netball club, where the outcome isn't just moving your body, but building a real-life community.”
It can also indicate that the exercise is driven by physical goals rather than enjoyment. And even conceal an unhealthy relationship with fitness and their bodies. As one youth charity told the CSJ, “It is clear that the image, not necessarily being healthy, is what young people want from the gym.”
What is intuitive, joyful movement?
The CSJ report makes a number of sensible recommendations for schools to make sport more welcoming. These include low-pressure, no-kit-change, activity sessions at break and lunchtime and more choice - two-thirds of 15-year-olds say they'd do more sport if their school offered a wider range of activities. But body respect must also be part of the conversation - inside and outside school.
As with food, diet culture creates many misconceptions around sport and puts certain forms of exercise on a pedestal while disparaging others. At the Body Happy Org, we encourage sports leaders to look at the environment they are creating. And urge everyone to promote intuitive, joyful movement that shuns diet culture’s rules around fitness and promotes moving for pleasure.
Rather than worrying about what we look like, what we’re wearing or what other people might be thinking, it’s about finding something you enjoy and using exercise as a self-care tool to make you feel good. Movement should not be about fear or punishment or manipulating your body. And it can come in many forms - all movement is valid. Whether it’s a game of football or netball, a walk in the park or a kitchen disco, as long as you are moving your body and you enjoy it, it counts. And it’s an approach that means we are more likely to keep doing it.
So, if we want to help get an inactive generation out of their bedrooms, yes, we have to provide more opportunities for them to take up social and physical activities. But we also need to look at the environments and cultures around these activities - both in and out of school. We need to bring body respect into the equation.
