An Australian blogger has come under fire for her fitness event which is aimed at children between the ages of 1 and 6.
29-year-old Ashy Bines is a hugely popular fitness and life blogger with over 900k followers on Instagram. Recently she began promoting an event, Ashy and Friends, that she was planning for children.
Calling it the 'entertainment event of the year', it aims to educate children on fitness and health. But, while her intentions seem fine, people are worried about the messaging this portrays to young kids.
As part of the event, she teaches the kids how to squat, as well as a more general overview of geography, language, music, nutrition, health and fitness.
The description of the event, on her
website, is as follows, "Finally an event that promotes health and happiness to your kids at the same time as making them laugh, dance, sing and smile. Our society is becoming less active, less healthy and more overweight every year. More than ever it is critical to inspire a love of health and fitness in our children."
One of the first people to speak out against the event was Christine Morgan, the CEO of The Butterfly Foundation. She told
The Daily Mail:
"I would have thought at a young age, for kids, food is about energy in order for them to live their lives - to fuel their little bodies and to fuel their growth.
You're starting to buy into a whole message that fat is bad and skinny is good and that's absolutely problematic because you can't interpret it at that age."
Ashy has yet to respond to the criticism and it looks like the event is going ahead, for now.
