DARE TO DREAM BIG!: Middle School Student’s Campaign to Protest the Sexualization of Girls in the Media!

Imagine This: You’re 14 years old and you and your friends resent the way photos of young female models in the magazines you read are airbrushed and photoshopped to look perfectly “perfect.” So what do you do?

 Who: You’re Julia Bluhm, a 14-year-old middle school student.

 What: Your change.org petition “Seventeen Magazine: Give Girls Images of Real Girls”

 Where: Offices of Seventeen Magazine in New York City

 When: May through July 2012

 This is the inspiring story of a young Maine girl who initiates her own campaign to protest the sexualization and stereotyping of girls and women in the media.

You’re an 8^th grader who’s been involved with the Civil Rights Team for many years. You not only want to put a stop to sexualization and stereotypes of girls in the media but, as a serious ballet student yourself, you also want to protest the negative stereotypes of ballet dancers.

As part of your protest, you start a change.org petition asking Seventeen Magazine to include some photos of girls each issue which aren’t photoshopped. You want its readers to see real girls as they really are, not as unbelievably “perfect” models impossible to emulate.

Your petition receives more than 85,000 signatures and, facing pressure from teen girls demanding truthful images of young women, Seventeen Magazine vows to “celebrate every kind of beauty” and to “never change girls’ body or face shapes” when retouching images.

Thank you, Julia, for caring enough to make a difference!

Postscript: Julia is also a blogger for the girl-fueled SPARK Movement which fights sexualized images of women and girls in the media You can see her blogs at www.sparksummit.com.

For More about Julia Bluhm:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDvaMwIkNpY

Something to Think about: Why do you think Julia feels so strongly about this issue?

                                        “The time is always right to do what is right.”

                                                         Martin Luther King, Jr.

Willoughby and I hope you enjoyed this week’s true story and will be back next week for another story to inspire you to DARE TO DREAM BIG!

 Reminder: To be eligible for the weekly drawing for an autographed copy of one of my books (your choice of book), please leave a comment here and also on my blog at http://www.kidscandoit.com/blog/.

THIS WEEK’S WINNER IS DICY McCULLOUGH.

CONGRATULATIONS, DICY!