Inuit students tackle body image in Inuktitut in YouTube video
'People are beautiful just the way they are,' says Lila Koonoo
A group of young Inuit students in Ottawa have produced a new video hoping to help women and girls love themselves, no matter what they look like.
Lila Koonoo is one of five students attending the Nunavut Sivuniksavut program in Ottawa behind the production.
"We read magazines and we watch TV and we have to be skinny, fit, blue-eyed, white-skinned people to be beautiful," she says. "That’s what they say to us."
"We made the video because we want to tell them that people are beautiful just the way they are."
Lynn Mike helped produce the piece.
She says it has a powerful message.
"Our body image: doesn't matter what size it is," Mike says. "We all have to treat people just the way they are and not how they look.
The three-minute YouTube video features personal reflections from the students, all in the Inuit language, Inuktitut.