Young voices are challenging stigma, misinformation and the idea that health can be measured by a number on a scale
Stowelink Foundation has begun releasing a new series of videos featuring young advocates sharing their perspectives on obesity as part of Beyond the Scale Africa, a new initiative focused on changing how obesity is understood, discussed and addressed in Kenya and across Africa.
The series brings an important perspective into the obesity conversation: the voices of young people themselves.
For Stowelink, the conversation about obesity cannot be reduced to weight, body size or a number on a weighing scale. It must include the experiences of people living with obesity, the environments in which people make health decisions, the stigma they encounter, the information available to them and the policies and health systems that shape their opportunities to live healthy lives.
Moving Beyond the Number
The name Beyond the Scale reflects a simple but important idea. A person’s health is more than a number.
Obesity is a complex health issue influenced by biological, social, environmental and economic factors. Yet public conversations about weight often place the responsibility almost entirely on individuals.
Through the video series, Stowelink’s youth advocates are asking audiences to look beyond this narrow understanding.
They speak about obesity as a health issue, the importance of reducing stigma and the need to create environments that make healthier choices more accessible and sustainable.
The conversations also challenge the language commonly used when discussing obesity and encourage greater consideration of how people living with obesity are described and represented.
Putting Lived Experience at the Centre
One of the central principles of Beyond the Scale Africa is that people affected by obesity should not simply be the subjects of conversations about obesity. They should have a meaningful role in shaping those conversations.
This is why lived experience is central to the initiative.
Young advocates participating in the video series bring their own perspectives to questions that are often discussed without them. Their voices help illustrate how stigma, social expectations, misinformation and the physical environment can influence people’s experiences of weight and health.
For Stowelink, this is an important shift in public health advocacy.
The organization believes that better policies and programmes are built when communities are listened to, and when lived experience is treated as an important source of knowledge alongside research and clinical evidence.
Challenging Obesity Stigma
Stigma remains one of the most difficult issues surrounding obesity.
People living with obesity can experience judgment in communities, schools, workplaces, healthcare settings and online spaces. Simplistic messages about personal responsibility can reinforce the idea that obesity is a sign of laziness, poor discipline or personal failure.
The Beyond the Scale videos challenge this narrative.
The advocates encourage audiences to think differently about the words they use, the assumptions they make and the way people living with obesity are treated.
For Stowelink, reducing stigma is not about avoiding difficult conversations about health. It is about creating space for those conversations to happen with dignity, evidence and empathy.
Looking at the Environment Around Us
The youth advocates also draw attention to a question that is often missing from individual health conversations: What kind of environment are people living in?
Food availability, marketing, advertising, urban design, opportunities for physical activity, access to healthcare and the affordability of healthy choices can all shape health behaviours.
These are not issues that individuals can solve on their own.
Beyond the Scale therefore looks beyond individual behaviour towards the wider environments and systems that influence health.
This systems perspective is particularly important in Africa, where countries are experiencing rapid urbanization, changing food environments and a growing burden of non-communicable diseases while many health systems continue to face significant resource constraints.
Young People Have a Role in Shaping the Response
Stowelink has always placed young people at the centre of its public health work.
The Beyond the Scale youth advocate series builds on that approach by creating a platform where young people can contribute to a national and regional conversation about obesity.
Their role is not simply to deliver health messages. They are helping challenge assumptions, raise questions and advocate for a more comprehensive response to obesity.
The videos are therefore part of a broader effort to build a generation of informed health advocates who can contribute to conversations around prevention, treatment, policy and health equity.
From Conversation to Action
The video series is one component of Beyond the Scale Africa, Stowelink Foundation’s broader obesity advocacy initiative.
The initiative brings together community education, storytelling, treatment and medication literacy, lived-experience leadership, advocacy and digital engagement.
The ambition is to move the obesity conversation from awareness to action.
That means improving public understanding, reducing stigma, strengthening treatment literacy, elevating lived-experience leadership and encouraging policies and environments that support healthier communities.
The videos provide a starting point by asking people to listen.
Listen to young people.
Listen to people living with obesity.
Listen to evidence.
And listen to the communities experiencing changes in their food, social and physical environments.
The Conversation Has Started
With the release of the first videos, Stowelink Foundation is opening a wider conversation about what it means to address obesity in Africa.
Beyond the Scale is ultimately about changing the question.
Instead of asking only, “What does the scale say?”, the conversation needs to ask:
What is shaping our health?
What support do people have?
What environments are we creating?
What does quality obesity care look like?
And whose voices are missing from the decisions being made?
Through the voices of its youth advocates, Stowelink Foundation is inviting communities, policymakers, health professionals, researchers, partners and people with lived experience to join that conversation.
Because tackling obesity requires more than measuring weight.
It requires understanding people, changing systems and building healthier environments.This is Beyond the Scale