Back in 2008, I watched Tri Delta’s Fat Talk Free Week YouTube video and was moved to tears. The message stayed with me for a long, long time, and it helped lay the framework for Operation Beautiful.

For the past three years, Operation Beautiful has been a big supporter of Fat Talk Free Week, which takes place on college campuses in October. The mission of the week is to encourage women and men to be more kind, gentle, and loving in their language about themselves and others. Tri Delta uses the week as an opportunity to talk about issues relating to body dissatisfaction and self-image.

This year, Operation Beautiful is an official partner of Fat Talk Free Week – I am so excited and thrilled.  And the sorority is shipping more than 10,000 packets of branded Post-Its to each and every sorority chapter. So if you’re on a college campus with a Tri Delta house, hopefully you’ll be seeing lots of Operation Beautiful notes in October!

I asked Tri Delta’s Director of Marketing and Project Management (Holly Thompson) and the Senior Director of Educational Initiatives (Sarah) if they would answer a few questions about the history of the FTFW videos.  The videos are such a big part of the movement and are so fun to watch, share, and talk about.

Which video is your favorite and why?

SARAH:  My favorite is the first one from 2008. While I like them all individually, the first one still gives me chills when I watch it. I find myself going through multiple emotions, everything from empowerment to frustration. I think it truly captures the importance of recognizing the damaging impact of fat talk in our conversations and the control it can have over our own body image.

How does your group brainstorm ideas for the FTFW videos?

HOLLY:  Tri Delta hasn’t made a FTFW specific video since 2009. In 2010, we let our biggest supporters submit their own videos because we knew that they were just as passionate about the key messages as we were. In the beginning, we wanted to make the video impactful and memorable, emotional, yet simple. We knew the facts about the damaging impacts of fat talk would speak for themselves, and recognize the importance of raising awareness about body image. The company we worked with understood how important the message was to us and made our vision come to life.

What do you think is key for creating effective and ‘share worthy’ videos?

HOLLY:  You have to know your audience, and what points you want them to walk away with while being limited to two or three minutes. You have to be clear, concise, and ready to make an impact.  For our message, it wasn’t about a gimmick; it was about the words we were using because ultimately, that’s what created an awareness campaign like Fat Talk Free Week in the first place.