Pre-teen and teen girls spend approximately 10 hours a day consuming media insisting that what matters most is how “hot” and thin they are. Three of those hours are spent on social media, a microcosm of mainstream media. While social media in short doses can make girls feel more connected, these apps often leave girls feeling anxious, lonely, and more insecure.
What girls need is the motivation and space to think critically about undermining media messages, understand where true self-worth comes from, and become part of the change by transforming media into a place where girls can find and create inspiring and empowering content. They need to be able to see that girls’ thoughts and contributions to the world are are more important than their clothing size or blemish-free skin. Instead of waiting for media executives to change the sexist culture all around us, we are building a movement in which girls create the culture by using their own social media, where they dominate in numbers.
After all, it’s not girls that need a makeover. It’s the media that does.