“Be bold in thought. Be kind with words. Be meaningful through actions.” -Melissa Atkins Wardy, to the young women and girls on the internet.
Last week news channels and parent blogs were abuzz with the story of tween/teen girls posting “Am I Ugly” videos on You Tube for strangers to comment on. It was difficult to watch the young girls give away their power, as my friend, author, and girl expert Deborah Reber explains in her post. We want to see girls using social media for good, like this video from our friends at New Moon Girls.
As adults, as mothers and aunties and grandmothers and sisters and friends, we need to encourage these girls to act with more meaning. I think back to all of the activities I did in high school with my friends – sports, band, choir, cheerleading, writing for the school paper, Student Council, hanging out at the beach or basketball courts….not once, NOT ONCE, did it ever occur to us to stop what we were doing and ask strangers if they thought we were ugly.
Social media has changed the world for kids, and women need to mentor younger girls on how harness to power of social media for good, like my rock star of a gal pal Emily Anne does with We Stop Hate. Other young women have launched game-changer campaigns like Lindsay and Lexie Kite from Beauty Redefined, or the teens from Powered By Girl (PBG) who use satire and humor to critique the awful marketing messages girls take in. These are ladies who recognized their power, and run with it.
Let’s raise our girls that instead of asking strangers to tell you if you are ugly, they self-confidence to go to the people who love and care about them, and ask them to tell the ways you are beautiful. Let’s show our girls that beauty quickly goes past pretty hair and sparkly eyes, and gets right to the soul of who they are. And who they are is beautiful, if they allow her to be.
We’re going to keep updating the Pigtail Pals and New Moon Girl You Tube channels with videos submitted by you, reinforcing to girls that they are beautiful and to look deeper for their authentic self.
Encourage your kids to make videos, too! I like this video from Pigtail Pals Community Member Kate G. who celebrates the beautiful people in her life.
Submit videos to info@pigtailpals.com.
9 Responses to “Yes! I Am Beautiful”
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Oh my gosh, those “Am I Ugly?” videos are terrible! How disturbing, that girls so young would feel the need to stoop so low to find affirmation. I love your video, and your words are so true. Everyone needs to listen to them.
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melissa Reply:
February 29th, 2012 at 12:49 pm
Thank you Jocelyn!
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We’d like to know how we can further support raising awareness for your wonderful campaign. Please let us know! We can feature this on our blog or website! Just let us know.
Happy seeing beautiful!
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melissa Reply:
February 29th, 2012 at 12:47 pm
Hi Lydia -
Wonderful! I’ll be in touch!
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[...] platform policy change to tighten the reins on ‘self-harm’ to New Moon Girls and Pigtail Pals video challenge to girls worldwide to use social media to counter external messages and look internally to take [...]
The worst thing about those “Am I Ugly” videos is that OF COURSE there will be nasty, weak-minded, trollish individuals who answer in the affirmative, just because they CAN in the anonymous world of the Net. They’ll think it’s funny. Hell, I’m just waiting for one of these videos to attract the attention of the 4chan crowd; they’ve bullied one girl half to death already (the majority of 4chan users are, or claim to be, in the words of my Louisianan friend, “grown-ass men”… apparently they are not too grown-up to bully eleven-year -olds. All I can say is, God help me if I ever meet one of these guys).
I am going to try and get my Girl Guide group talking about this. I’m not sure I’ll get through to all of them, but I have to try.
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Wouldn’t it be great if girls saw this social media as an opportunity for positive self-visualization rather than an opportunity to cut themselves and other girls down? For instance, Reel Grrls works with young girls who are interested in film-making and media to create social documentaries, short films, etc. about their lives and interests.
Check it out – it’s pretty full of awesome! http://www.reelgrrls.org/
[Reply]
[...] platform policy change to tighten the reins on ‘self-harm’ to New Moon Girls and Pigtail Pals video challenge to girls worldwide to use social media to counter external messages and look internally to take [...]