A woman who thinks female students should learn about the importance of body confidence at school is launching a project to talk to teenagers on the matter.

Nazia Khatun has already spent six months at Plashet school in East Ham helping year eight and year nine girls understand eating disorders, hygiene and “self love”.

The 32-year-old said she wants to empower girls by touring Newham’s schools and giving talks about the dangers of external pressures.

“It’s important to address these issues at school age as it’s the age you’re most easily influenced by magazines and peers,” she added.

“It’s a crucial age for development and learning new things.”

She wants to discuss body confidence and how boxing helped her look after herself mentally and physically after she had bulimia, anorexia and issues with binge eating when she was younger.

As a Bangladeshi Muslim she thinks there isn’t enough support in her community to promote health and overcome bad eating habits.

Nazia, who is from East Ham, calls herself a “body transformation coach” and started boxing at 21. She explained there are stigmas attached to Muslim girls who box but it helped her “create an identity and gain confidence.”

“Boxing has also allowed me to help so many women from the same background to take control,” she added. “The aim of [body coaching] is to get shy girls to have confidence. A lot of women have a negative view of their body and this is about loving yourself. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a size zero, it’s about being happy with who you are.”