Feeling Judged is a research-based comic we have created as part of a doctoral project exploring how girls’ everyday experiences at school shape how they feel about their bodies and themselves.

The comic centres on the idea of ‘peer surveillance’: the way that girls’ bodies and behaviours are continually watched, judged, and scrutinised by others, both online and in school. These subtle forms of social monitoring often produce feelings of shame, anxiety, and pressure to conform.

Grounded in co-produced research with girls in secondary schools in the UK and Sweden, the comic is informed by lived experience. It highlights how feelings about our bodies are not simply personal insecurities, but are shaped through broader social, cultural, and institutional forces.

About Feeling Judged

The story follows Mira, a fictional girl whose experiences are informed by the stories shared by participants in the research.

Through everyday practices of gossip, looks, and social hierarchies, Mira navigates an environment in which femininity is under constant surveillance. The comic invites readers to reflect on how elusive ideals of “perfect” femininity are embedded and enforced within peer relationships, and how school spaces become entangled with wider cultural expectations around bodies and beauty.

It also questions the effectiveness of individualised solutions relating to personal resilience or body confidence, suggesting that these approaches often fail to address the systemic forces shaping girls’ experiences of embodiment.

Created in collaboration with artist and illustrator Ell Rose, Feeling Judged translates academic research into an accessible visual format. It can be used to spark critical, collective conversations about how expectations for girls to look, act, and be a certain way can be resisted or reimagined.

Most importantly, it encourages readers to consider how schools, families, peers, social media, and society more broadly, could shift to become less judgemental and more supportive spaces for girls.

Access and use Feeling Judged

There are two downloadable files available to support different ways of engaging with Feeling Judged:

• The comic: The full visual comic. (PDF format)
• Accessible transcription: A plain-text version of the comic created for screen readers and visually impaired readers. It includes image descriptions and all dialogue and narrative text to ensure the story is accessible to everyone. (PDF file)

Access and download these files

Feeling Judged Discussion Guide

We have also created a discussion guide to help you use Feeling Judged to facilitate conversations about body image with young people.

This contains a set of discussion questions designed to support readers, educators, or facilitators in exploring the comic’s themes. This guide can be used in classrooms to support critical discussion and reflection on body judgement, peer surveillance, and the socio-cultural norms that shape femininity.

Access the Feeling Judged Discussion Guide

Team members

• Ella Sangmyr, Department for Health
• Dr Emma Solomon-Moore, Department for Health
• Professor Emma Rich, Department for Health
• Professor Michael Donnelly, Department of Education