The courtroom was silent before Jack rolled out the 7-foot-tall defendant. It was People's Court. The defendant was Barbie. The charge: unhealthy role model for girls. Evidence: "Barbie's bulimic kitchen."

The "courtroom" was filled with 500 seventh grade students at Dixon Middle School in Provo, and they were soon roaring with laughter. Jack was not a lawyer, but an actor trying to help young people understand that they don't have to look like Barbie to feel good about their bodies.

Dixon Middle School student Nicole Robinson, 12, thought the show was really funny.

"I learned that you don't have to listen to what people say to you," Robinson said.

Jack Diamond and Angelica Barquero, known as Jack and Angie on stage, shared the spotlight for 45 minutes at the school on Wednesday to teach students healthy living habits.

Intermountain Healthcare and SelectHealth have teamed up to make these assemblies possible. They understand that childhood obesity is a problem and they are doing all they can to help adolescents take charge of their lives by promoting healthy living for seventh grade students through the entertaining performances by Jack and Angie called LiVe - This is Your Life.

As Jack kept the students interested with his humor, Angie gave the students important information by explaining what calcium really is and that Barbie and Pamela Anderson are unhealthy role models for girls.

"Most of us real women in the real world don't look like that," Angie said.

Angie taught the students about healthy living with facts about how much sugar and salt are in the things people get at fast food restaurants, how anorexia can lead to bone loss, that obesity has doubled in children and adults in the last 25 years and other eye opening facts.

Copyright Brigham Young University 21 Feb 2008