Damaging girls' self-esteem? There's an app for that.

Nearly every girl I spoke to while researching my book expressed a wish to be a model/celebrity in some way. Even the girls who excel in school, sports and activities. *That's* how strong the cultural messages are about the importance and benefits of having the right look.Over the course of my career, I have interned/worked/edited/freelanced at and for teen magazines like Sassy, YM, Jump, Teen People, Seventeen, Elle Girl, Cosmo Girl, Girls Life and others...and I can't tell you how many emails and letters I've seen asking the same question:

"Do you think I could model?"

I've opened manila envelopes containing expensive professional photos girls have invested in.  I've received hand wrapped packages crammed with snapshots of bikini-clad girls in their backyards asking if I think they stand a chance at being in  ______ (enter name of teen magazine I happened to be working for at the time).

From these letters, I gleaned that girls all over north America were spending a disproportionate amount (and by that I mean A LOT), of their time, energy and money on trying to achieve the look and body that would open this door to them.  They talked about quitting their favorite sports and activities in order to increase their chances of getting discovered.  In their minds: no soccer = diminished risk of getting a ball to the face, thereby ruining their shot at getting discovered by a model agent at the mall or airport--as if all malls and airports are constantly being trawled by modeling agents.  (But then again, given how we've all heard ad nauseum that Kate Moss was discovered at while en route to a family vacation, is it any surprise that they want that fairy tale for themselves?)  Girls also wrote in about spending their allowances on products and services--waxing, highlights, gym memberships--that once upon a time were only for adults, And about how much time they spent "hanging out" with their friends primping instead of playing.

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Maybe Heidi Montag deserves another chance

This may be old news, but a January 3, 2011 copy of Life & Style featuring Heidi's confessions has been sitting on my desk for over a month...and I've got a few related thoughts I need to get off my (non-surgically enhanced chest). 

Why is no one talking about Heidi's recantations?  As a culture, we couldn't shut up last year about the number of surgeries she elected to have, her cup size, her relationship with her mother, the shade of her bleached blonde hair, her failed pop album, her PR seeking stunts etc etc.

And now she's admitted that we were right.  That "surgery made her look worse."  That she regrets having gone under the knife.  That there have been major repercussions (she can't jog due to the size of her G-cup breasts; she can't wash her face because she's afraid to bump her fragile nose; she has visible dimpling and scars on the back of her legs).

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How I Feel About Hooters.

Sisterhood of the boobs and shorts. I don't normally get political, but then I saw this ("GOP Politician Goes from Hooters Girl to State House") and, well,  here I am creating a post with tags like #GOP and #Bodyimage because worlds are conflating.

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The SPARK Summit

The Spark (Sexualization Protest: Action, Resistance, Knowledge) Summit is happening in NYC on October 22nd.  

Oh, how I wish I could be there...because so many important thinkers, activists and educators are going to be convening to inspire and create change in our culture. 

Pole dancing dolls? Hooters-Girl-in-Training t-shirts for baby girls? Breasts used to sell everything from hamburgers to cars?  It's go to stop.

So please go to the summit if you can...

Cover Girl Culture

Updated on Thursday, September 16, 2010 by Audrey Brashich

Right around the time my book All Made Up: A Girl’s Guide to Seeing Through Celebrity Hype and Celebrating Real Beauty was published, a former Elite model named Nicole Clark contacted me about a new DVD documentary she was creating.  She told me it was going to explore the impact of today’s beauty standards on teens and young women.  She told me she was going to take aim at the media created for young women for offering so little to girls by way of role models and definitions of beauty.  She told me it was going to be BIG—and basically, she had me at Hello.

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