City Unveils Campaign to Improve Girls’ Self-Esteem

[Gormy Cuss]

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in the same way that soda companies and big tobacco are. But they are, in a sense, the impetus for City Hall’s latest public health campaign.

Mr. Bloomberg is taking on the popular, unattainable notions of beauty promoted by professional image-makers with a campaign that tells girls that they are beautiful the way they are.

Mainly through bus and subway ads, the campaign aims to reach girls from about 7 to 12 years old, who are at risk of negative body images that can lead to eating disorders, drinking, acting out sexually, suicide and bullying. But unlike Mr. Bloomberg’s ads to combat teenage pregnancy, smoking and soda-drinking, which are often ugly, revolting or sad, these ads are uniformly upbeat and positive.

“I’m a girl. I’m funny, playful, daring, strong, curious, smart, brave, healthy, friendly and caring,” one ad, featuring DeVoray Wigfall, a robust, laughing 12-year-old from University Heights in the Bronx, says. The ads show girls of different races and sizes, some playing sports and one in a wheelchair. Each one ends with the campaign’s overall slogan: “I’m beautiful the way I am.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/01/nyregion/city-unveils-a-campaign-to-improve-girls-self-esteem.html?nl=health&emc=edit_hh_20131001&_r=3&


Rather than using actors or models, all of the young women participating in the ads are children of city workers.

[KT2000]

1. something needs to be done

as we have apparently turned our young ones over to corporate sales pitches. The clothes girls are wearing now can surely get them into trouble if they don't have a strong sense of themselves. A girl wearing these clothes on a date could easily be accused of being a tease by a jerk boy - and find herself doing things she didn't really want to do.

Boys should be educated too so they don't behave as a jerk boy!