Girls Event Combats Stereotypes, Encourages Invidividuality

Young ladies have a lot on their minds. In a world with hundreds of television channels and a billion internet sites, our children not only have a rapidly increasing number of entertainment options; they have increasing exposure to information that we, as parents, teachers and concerned citizens, have little opportunity to censor. In November, Common Sense Media reported that children ages 8-12 use media around 8 hours per day. If a girl’s online role models (according to Victoria’s Secret) weigh in at an average 120 pounds, 5 feet 10 inches, the average American woman (5’4, 165 lbs.) is left feeling largely inadequate.

With each passing year, our children have the responsibility to accomplish more, faster. In addition to internal pressures to succeed, they face school and parental pressures to excel academically and socially, peer pressure to be cool, and near constant media pressure to be super thin and surgically enhanced. One can easily see why young ladies’ continue to suffer from low self-esteem, which results in risk-taking behaviors, such as disordered eating, cutting, bullying, smoking and drinking.

On Saturday, February 27th, the Robert Crown Center for Health Education (RCC) presents “Happy to Be Me!” a luncheon celebration for girls and the important women in their lives. The event provides powerful tools to help girls develop self-esteem. This year’s presenters, Sarah McDonnell and MaryEllen Young of Helping Girls Navigate Adolescence will engage young ladies (and their companions) with inspiring stories and hands-on exercises to illustrate how wonderful it is to be exactly who you are, just as you are. They will build awareness around the falsely constructed standards of beauty we find in the media, and urge young ladies to seek personal fulfillment that neither seeks nor acknowledges comparisons with others.

The Happy to Be Me! event has been inspiring women and girls to develop character, live a balanced life, and believe in themselves for four years. In addition to the fun and energizing presentation by McDonnell and Young, the event offers a unique opportunity for female bonding, boutique shopping, girl-centered raffle prizes and a healthy, delicious lunch.

The fundraising event costs $50 per person; proceeds support RCC’s mission to equip all children -- regardless of barriers such as varied ability and income -- to make informed choices and live their healthiest potential. The event runs from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Hilton Oak Brook Hills Resort. Registration is available at http://www.robertcrown.org/events.php.

The Robert Crown Center for Health Education (RCC) is the nation’s first health education center and the largest provider of health education for school-aged youth in the Chicago region. More than 5 million students have learned from RCC’s science-based programs on healthy eating, puberty, human reproduction, tobacco, alcohol, and drug abuse prevention. Each year, nearly 90,000 young people and adults from eight counties benefited from RCC programs. RCC educators customize learning experiences for audiences according to their age, gender and developmental levels. RCC operates facilities in Hinsdale and Chicago.

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