#REALMEDIAGIRLS of 2021
2021 is winding down, and what a year it’s been. As we look back on the last year, we at MEDIAGIRLS want to reflect on some of the real-life women who made headlines in 2021 and the lessons that they can teach girls+. The six women on this list are some of many who broke […]
Halloween Scares On Social Media
Halloween is upon us, and there’s a lot to be excited about. Costumes, candy, parties, decorations – I like the spooky season as much as the next gal. Still, for every good-natured fright, there are some real scares to account for every Halloween, many of which are exacerbated by social media. Let’s break down three […]
TikTok's Troubling Beauty Standards
Social media has a messy relationship with, well, most tenets of reality; the priority is often less an accurate depiction of a person or the world, but a version of the aforementioned that maximizes attention and interest. This is especially true of a platform like TikTok, where users have mere minutes to make an impression […]
TikTok Made Me Buy It
TikTok is a massive juggernaut in the pop cultural arena. Millions of people around the world are active on the app, and naturally, advertisers and marketers are eager to tap into this market, especially the younger demographic that may include your girl+. In this article, we’ll break down the commercialism of TikTok and the strategies […]
Netflix Shows to Watch with Your Girls
Spring Break is just around the corner and that means girls are finally free enough to catch up on some quality TV time. Not sure what to watch? MEDIAGIRLS Editorial Intern Catrina Yang Farrell has got you covered. As a 21-year-old I LOVED watching all of these shows! It can be hard finding shows for […]
2020 Was Terrible for Girls. Or Was It?
As 2020 comes to a close, we asked our Youth Advisory Board to reflect on this historic year of pop culture, pandemic, protest, and performance. Here’s what they had to say… On a scale of 1-10–1 being the worst year ever and 10 being the best–how was your 2020? Rhea rates this year a 5. […]
The Social Dilemma, COVID-19, and the State of Social Media Today
Netflix’s documentary The Social Dilemma has taken the world by storm with its chilling presentation of our technological reality. In this blog post, MEDIAGIRLS Editorial Intern Catrina Yang Farrell highlights the main takeaways of the documentary, all the more pressing taken in the context of COVID-19, and comes up with some ways to regain control […]
What is the right age for girls to get their own social media accounts?
As girls are spending more time online than ever before due to COVID-19, this question becomes an especially difficult one to answer. In this blog post, Editorial Volunteer Isabela Rocha explores this topic with the help of parents and experts. Nadia Mullin allows her 8-year-old daughter to watch YouTube videos under supervision, which she said […]
MEDIAGIRLS Goes Live with Eight Virtual Workshops
“I don’t know what my daughter is doing all day on her phone but I need to get work done so I just hope it’s not too awful.” “I saw my nieces scrolling through their Instagram last week, and the images of women were so fake and sexualized that I wanted to cry.” “My girl […]
MEDIAGIRLS Virtual Workshops
In this series of eight virtual workshops, pre-teen and teen girls will have fun while learning how media influences their well-being and how to help transform media culture. Participants gain the necessary tools to deconstruct media, understand how media messages influence their feelings of self-worth, and create positive and inspiring content. Girls will spend approximately […]
How Stepping Back from Social Media can be Self-Care during COVID-19
July 24th was International Self-Care Day. In this blog post, MEDIAGIRLS Mentor and Editorial Volunteer Isabela Rocha consults experts around the globe to examine the intersection of self-care and social media in the age of COVID-19. Deyanira Cabazos, a micro-influencer, used to be on social media every day, but the pandemic has changed her habits. […]
Your Anti-Racism Questions... Answered (Part 3 of 3)
In the last month, MEDIAGIRLS ran our Anti-Racism Workshop: “How Can Girls Help Take Down Racism with Instagram and TikTok?” We were flooded with questions at the end of the workshop, which we ran twice, and were not able to answer all of them due to time constraints. But the questions were thoughtful and important, […]
Your Anti-Racism Questions... Answered (Part 2 of 3)
In the last month, MEDIAGIRLS ran our Anti-Racism Workshop: “How Can Girls Help Take Down Racism with Instagram and TikTok?” We were flooded with questions at the end of the workshop, which we ran twice, and were not able to answer all of them due to time constraints. But the questions were thoughtful and important, […]
Your Anti-Racism Questions...Answered (Part 1 of 3)
In the last month, MEDIAGIRLS ran our anti-racism workshop: “How Can Girls Help Take Down Racism with Instagram and TikTok?” We were flooded with questions at the end of the workshop, which we ran twice, and were not able to answer all of them due to time constraints. But the questions were thoughtful and important, […]
Virtual Workshop: How Can Girls Help Take Down Racism with Instagram & TikTok?
Reach out if you’d like to bring our workshop to your company! NOTE: We initially hosted this workshop on June 25th and July 9th, and have received many requests from companies and schools to have us present it for their community. Interested in bringing it to YOUR staff? Learn more. How is racism baked into […]
White Parents: First Steps in Teaching Girls to Be a REAL Ally to People of Color
Yesterday, my 15-year-old daughter Risa told me that many teens she knows are reposting the brutal video of George Floyd being murdered by two police officers in Minneapolis. The captions are typically “This is so sad,” or “This is awful.” Others are posting the video of the white woman in Central Park who called the […]
Are You and Your Girl(s) Celebrating the Tiny Wins?
A mentoring strategy to help boost resilience long past quarantine Like a lot of teen girls–and perhaps most of the human population right now–my daughter hit a quarantine roadblock this week. “I was doing pretty well with a daily schedule and making healthy food choices and stuff,” she told me. “But now, I’m staying up […]
Let Your Body Curate Your Social Media Feed
Note: If you are an adult, we hope you’ll find this post helpful in curating your social media feed to feel less stressed, more grounded. We ask that you share it with a girl(s) in your life who you think it will help. It is so easy to lose yourself in the limitless scroll of […]
What Do Girls Say Parents Should Know about TikTok?
TikTok, which was huge before the pandemic, and it seems to be growing astronomically, as so many of us seek lighter content. Adults have now flooded the platform aimed at young people, making us wonder if teens and 20-somethings will soon flee (as happened on Facebook). That said, in case you know the name but […]
How Girls Can Shield Themselves from Stressful Friend Updates
The Dilemma: Let’s say your girl is FaceTiming her friend Jamie, and out of nowhere Jamie starts talking about how she is going to go crazy if she has to keep staying home and is worried this pandemic will never end. Perhaps, Jamie adds: “What if we’re stuck in our homes forever and this is […]
"Social Distancing" is the Wrong Phrase
[This post was written by Michelle Cove, founder and Executive Director of MEDIAGIRLS and reflects her opinions.] It’s an unsettling time, obviously. In addition to the actual virus, we are struggling to figure out how to adapt to many complicated situations in real-time. At MEDIAGIRLS, like a whole lot of places, we had to shut […]
Positive Media Content Your Girl(s) Should Know About!
One of the many concerns for parents and educators right now is that we don’t know what media content our kids are absorbing while they’re scrolling. Is it healthy? Is it harmful, possibly scary? Where can girls even go right now to find content that will inspire and uplift them? Together, a group of nonprofits […]
Think You Have No Time to Feel? Think Again.
by Michelle Cove, founder and Executive Director of MEDIAGIRLS Most of us are making decisions at rapid-fire pace without knowing what life will look like in a month, a week, or, let’s face it, tomorrow. Of course, the reality is that we never know what’s coming; we just like to think we do. Now, the […]
Teaching Girls to Say NO to Nudes
“My daughter definitely hasn’t been asked to send nude pictures to boys,” said one mom at a recent MEDIAGIRLS parent talk. “It’s not a thing at our school,” said another mom. “Wait, what are ‘nudes?!’” asked a dad looking appalled. “Nudes” are sexually explicit pictures or videos – taken fully or partially naked – that […]
Why Your Girl+ Loves TikTok, and What You Should Know about It!
Since the early 2000s, pre-teens and teens have buzzed through social media apps as quickly as trends go by. Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, and Facebook have been the most frequently tapped into, but in 2018, TikTok received more downloads than the latter three. The video-sharing app has stepped onto the social media scene and is […]