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Fast Chat: Miss Lori

June 2, 2009 By misslori View Comments

Heidi Stevens is a Chicago-based writer and editor. You’ll find her writing every week in the Chicago Tribune, where she writes about parenting, style, relationships and other matters of the heart. Heidi also teaches creative writing classes at Columbia College. She and her husband, Tom, and their daughter, June, live in Chicago. www.heidikstevens.com

I had a fantastic conversation with Heidi Stevens after she and her beautiful daughter June attended back to back concerts of mine at The Chicago Children’s Museum. By the second show June had her SMILE T-shirt on and joined in with the other CAMPUS Kids on stage. That’s what it is all about for me, exciting children and their parents to get activated..with a SMILE! Below is the article that ran in the SMART section of the Sunday May 31, 2009 edition of the Chicago Tribune.
SMILE On!

ML
By Heidi Stevens |Tribune newspapers
May 31, 2009

You may know her as the smiling face who appears between your kids’ favorite PBS shows, doling out tips on healthy living. But Miss Lori (Lori Holton Nash) is a one-woman force of nature, urging kids — through her DVDs, CDs, YouTube channel and free live performances — to practice “active play, healthy food, peaceful sleep, awesome fun!”

QAs a parent, it’s tempting to say, “I’ll focus on healthy eating, and the rest will have to slide.” Is that OK?

AI’m a mother of three, and there are days I look at that list and say, “I’m not sure I can hit all of it.” It’s about keeping the overall mantra in our heads so we’re laying the foundation for our children to make healthy choices. We want good, healthy choices to become autopilot.

QWe’re seeing record childhood obesity but also an increase in eating disorders — children starving themselves. Are both epidemics rooted in the same problem?

ANot exactly. Eating disorders speak to the imprinting on our children where they don’t feel good enough. They look at their changing, developing bodies and say, “That’s not what I see in every magazine, every advertisement, every television show. I don’t see me, so I must not be OK.” Kids do unhealthy things to adjust to those images because they’re young and they don’t have the knowledge to make good choices. Obesity has to do with money — money we don’t have to fund positive school lunch programs, for teachers to staff proper recess, to have physical fitness in schools every day. And the money that is coming in is from vending machine retailers who place unhealthy products in schools. Children are still learning what it means to do right by our bodies and make better choices.


QAt your shows, you don’t let parents off the hook. Is your mission to educate adults as well?

AIf my mission is children, I need to pay attention to their parents. It’s good for children to see their parents get up and get moving. It’s also about giving back to parents. We spend so much time being the enforcer, the guidance counselor, the tutor, the referee. I feel like I’ve done a good show if I see parents participating with their children — not off having a kaffeeklatsch — but taking that gift of being able to just hang with their children and enjoy them.

hstevens@tribune.comRead more about Miss Lori’s upcoming performances at missloriscampus.com.

Filed Under: Miss Lori In The Press

About misslori
Miss Lori is a nationally recognized children's entertainer and educator.

blog comments powered by Disqus

Fast Chat: Miss Lori

June 2, 2009 By misslori
I had a fantastic conversation with Heidi Stevens after she and her beautiful daughter June attended back to back concerts of mine at The Chicago Children’s Museum. By the second show June had her SMILE T-shirt in and was on stage joining in with the other CAMPUS Kids. That’s what it is all about for me, exciting children and their parents to get activated..with a SMILE! Below is the article that ran in the SMART section of the Sunday May 31, 2009 edition of the Chicago Tribune.
?
SMILE On!
?
ML?
?
By Heidi Stevens |Tribune newspapers
May 31, 2009

You may know her as the smiling face who appears between your kids’ favorite PBS shows, doling out tips on healthy living. But Miss Lori (Lori Holton Nash) is a one-woman force of nature, urging kids — through her DVDs, CDs, YouTube channel and free live performances — to practice “active play, healthy food, peaceful sleep, awesome fun!”

QAs a parent, it’s tempting to say, “I’ll focus on healthy eating, and the rest will have to slide.” Is that OK?

AI’m a mother of three, and there are days I look at that list and say, “I’m not sure I can hit all of it.” It’s about keeping the overall mantra in our heads so we’re laying the foundation for our children to make healthy choices. We want good, healthy choices to become autopilot.

QWe’re seeing record childhood obesity but also an increase in eating disorders — children starving themselves. Are both epidemics rooted in the same problem?

ANot exactly. Eating disorders speak to the imprinting on our children where they don’t feel good enough. They look at their changing, developing bodies and say, “That’s not what I see in every magazine, every advertisement, every television show. I don’t see me, so I must not be OK.” Kids do unhealthy things to adjust to those images because they’re young and they don’t have the knowledge to make good choices. Obesity has to do with money — money we don’t have to fund positive school lunch programs, for teachers to staff proper recess, to have physical fitness in schools every day. And the money that is coming in is from vending machine retailers who place unhealthy products in schools. Children are still learning what it means to do right by our bodies and make better choices.


QAt your shows, you don’t let parents off the hook. Is your mission to educate adults as well?

AIf my mission is children, I need to pay attention to their parents. It’s good for children to see their parents get up and get moving. It’s also about giving back to parents. We spend so much time being the enforcer, the guidance counselor, the tutor, the referee. I feel like I’ve done a good show if I see parents participating with their children — not off having a kaffeeklatsch — but taking that gift of being able to just hang with their children and enjoy them.

hstevens@tribune.comRead more about Miss Lori’s upcoming performances at missloriscampus.com.

Filed Under: Miss Lori Parent to Parent

About misslori
Miss Lori is a nationally recognized children's entertainer and educator.

blog comments powered by Disqus